Chinese spacecraft orbited the moon and returned to Earth – RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, November 1 – RIA Novosti. The return spacecraft, China sent into orbit satellite, on Saturday made a successful landing on the territory of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, the Xinhua news agency reported.

© East News / Xinhua / Photoshot / REPORTER

This was the first spacecraft to be returned in the last 40 years – the last documented operation of this kind was implemented by the Soviet Union in the 1970s.

During his eight-day mission of the unit covered the distance of 840 thousand kilometers, orbited the moon and returned to Earth at a speed of about 11 kilometers per second. Thus, reminds agency, China became the third country in the world after the USA and the USSR, which launched the recovery vehicle to the moon.

Running the test apparatus was another step in the implementation of China’s lunar exploration program, “Chang’e”, named after the ancient Chinese moon goddess. The program includes three stages: the circled around the Earth satellite (“Chang’e 1″ and “Chang’e-2″), landing on the moon (“Chang’e-3″ and “Chang’e-4″) and the return from the moon to the Earth (“Chang’e -5 “and” Chang’e-6 “). Launched experimental spacecraft was to test the technology that will be used for the “Chang’e-5″.

Chinese scientists have already begun to implement the third phase of the program. China plans to implement in 2017 from the Baikonur launch Wenchang satellite “Chang’e-5″, whose mission is to landing on the moon, collecting samples of lunar soil and return to Earth.

Last year, China sent a rover on the moon ” Yutu “(” Jade Hare “). He was on board the lander “Chang’e 3″ and sat down in the crater of the Bay of Rainbows on December 14th. “Yutu” was the first since 1976, after the Soviet “Luna-24″ artificial object, made a soft landing on the moon. The tasks of the unit was to study the geological structure and the substance on the surface of the satellite. It was planned that the rover will work for three months. However, as reported by Xinhua, “Jade Hare” has managed to transmit data for seven nights the moon, which is about 101 Earth Day.

China’s space program

The program is China’s space exploration started October 8, 1956, when the PRC was established fifth Academy Ministry of Defense, was engaged in missile development.

The first Chinese Jiuquan spaceport was opened October 20, 1958 at the edge of Jilin Badane-desert in the lower reaches of Heihe. In September 1960, here was successfully launched the first short-range missiles of the Soviet production, and in November 1960 was successfully launched the first missiles manufactured in China. Read more & gt; & gt;