China returns sample of lunar dirt to Earth

China’s first mission to return a sample of dirt from the Moon just arrived back at Earth, with a container of lunar rocks in tow, China state media confirmed. A capsule of lunar material scraped up by a Chinese spacecraft landed this afternoon in a very snowy Inner Mongolia, after plunging through Earth’s atmosphere and parachuting to the ground.

The landing marks the end of China’s third whirlwind — and incredibly complex — mission to the lunar surface, called Chang’e 5. The flight launched on November 23rd, sending a gaggle of four different robotic spacecraft to the Moon’s orbit. On December 1st, two of those spacecraft — a lander and an ascent vehicle — touched down on the lunar surface in order to dig up samples of rocks from the...

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