China lands lunar probe, collects moon rocks
China has successfully landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon's surface -- a historic mission for the country to retrieve rock samples, according to state media.
The Chang'e-5 probe will attempt to collect 4 1/2 lbs of samples in a previously unvisited area: a massive lava plain known as the "Ocean of Storms."
If the mission is completed as planned, it would make China only the third nation to have retrieved lunar samples-
after the United States and the Soviet Union.
State broadcaster CCTV said it would start collecting samples on the lunar surface in the next two days.
Those would then be transferred to a return capsule for the trip back to Earth, landing in China's Inner Mongolia region.
China made its first lunar landing in 2013.
In January last year, the Chang'e-4 probe touched down on the far side of the moon, the first space probe from any nation to do so.
