Chang'e 5

Chang'e 5 (<a href="/facts/Simplified_Chinese_characters/UcAD6xXs">Chinese</a>: 嫦娥五号; <a href="/facts/Pinyin/pUwjfMXg">pinyin</a>: Cháng'é wǔhào) was the fifth <a href="/facts/Lunar_exploration/lFKweAk3">lunar exploration</a> mission in the <a href="/facts/Chinese_Lunar_Exploration_Program/yvU3sNf1">Chinese Lunar Exploration Program</a> of <a href="/facts/China_National_Space_Administration/q3s4bGYt">CNSA</a>, and China's first lunar <a href="/facts/Sample-return_mission/0bcaFtVx">sample-return mission</a>. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess, <a href="/facts/Chang%27e/BPDQSPgs">Chang'e</a>. It launched at 20:30 <a href="/facts/UTC/2EnjfSyu">UTC</a> on 23 November 2020, from <a href="/facts/Wenchang_Spacecraft_Launch_Site/1RJ6epFK">Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site</a> on <a href="/facts/Hainan_Island/wUWoHo1V">Hainan Island</a>, landed on the <a href="/facts/Moon/zKHqEMPb">Moon</a> on 1 December 2020, collected ~1,731 g (61.1 oz) of <a href="/facts/Lunar_sample/DMJbMMG1">lunar samples</a> (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned to the <a href="/facts/Earth/HLLmDfj0">Earth</a> at 17:59 UTC on 16 December 2020.
Chang'e 5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>'s <a href="/facts/Luna_24/jh3mENp0">Luna 24</a> in 1976. New lunar minerals, including <a href="/facts/Changesite-(Y)/FrNrl6Dr">Changesite-(Y)</a> and two different structures of the titanium compound Ti2O, were identified from the samples returned from the mission, making China the third country to discover a new lunar mineral. The mission also made China the third country to return samples from the Moon after the United States and the Soviet Union.

Chang'e 5 open-in-new

Chang'e 5