Chang'e 5
Chang'e 5 probe separating from the launcher (artist's impression) | |
| Mission type | Lunar sample return |
|---|---|
| Operator | CNSA |
| COSPAR ID | 2020-087A |
| SATCAT no. | 47097 |
| Mission duration | Elapsed: 4 years, 6 months, 27 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | CAST |
| Launch mass | 8,200 kg |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 23 November 2020 20:30:12 UTC 24 November 2020 04:30 CST |
| Rocket | Long March 5 |
| Launch site | Wenchang |
| Contractor | CALT |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 16 December 2020 17:59 UTC Return capsule |
| Landing site | Inner Mongolia, China |
| Lunar orbiter | |
| Orbital insertion | 28 November 2020 12:58 UTC |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Periapsis altitude | 200 km (120 mi) |
| Lunar lander | |
| Landing date | 1 December 2020 15:11 UTC |
| Return launch | 3 December 2020 15:10 UTC |
| Landing site | Mons Rümker, region of Oceanus Procellarum 43°03′27″N 51°54′58″W / 43.0576°N 51.9161°W |
| Sample mass | 1,731 g (61.1 oz) |
| Docking with Sample Ascender | |
| Docking date | 5 December 2020, 21:42:00 UTC |
| Undocking date | 7 December 2020, 04:35:00 UTC |
| Flyby of Moon | |
| Spacecraft component | orbiter |
| Closest approach | ~9 September 2021 |
| Chang'e probes | |
| Chang'e 5 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 嫦娥五号 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 嫦娥五號 | ||||||
| |||||||
Chang'e 5 (Chinese: 嫦娥五号; pinyin: Cháng'é wǔhào) was the fifth lunar exploration mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of CNSA, and China's first lunar sample-return mission. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e. It launched at 20:30 UTC on 23 November 2020, from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, landed on the Moon on 1 December 2020, collected ~1731 g (61.1 oz) of lunar samples (including from a core ~1 m deep), and returned to the Earth at 17:59 UTC on 16 December 2020.
Chang'e 5 was the first lunar sample-return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. New lunar minerals, including Changesite-(Y) 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.