China on Tuesday launched an unmanned spacecraft to bring back lunar rocks - the first attempt by any nation to retrieve samples from the Moon in four decades.
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A Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang'e-5 probe, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, blasted off from the Wenchang Space Center on the southern island province of Hainan at 4:30 am (2030 GMT Monday), the official Xinhua news agency reported.
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Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and of eventually sending humans to the Moon.
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The mission's goal is to shovel up lunar rocks and soil to help scientists learn about the Moon's origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.
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The original mission, planned for 2017, was delayed due to an engine failure in the Long March 5 rocket.
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If successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
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The Chinese probe will collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of surface material in a previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum - or "Ocean of Storms" - which consist of a vast lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.
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The probe is expected to land in late November and collect material during one lunar day - equivalent to around 14 Earth days.
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The samples will then be returned to Earth in a capsule programmed to land in northern China's Inner Mongolia region in early December, according to US space agency NASA.
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The mission is technically challenging and involves several innovations not seen during previous attempts at collecting moon rocks, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
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"The US never did a robotic sample return. The Soviet one was very limited and could only land at certain restricted spots," McDowell told AFP.
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"China's system will be the most flexible and capable robotic sample return system yet.
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A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019, in a global first that boosted Beijing's ambitions to become a space superpower.
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It was the second Chinese probe to land on the Moon, following the Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") rover mission in 2013.
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The latest Chang'e-5 probe is among a slew of ambitious targets set by Beijing, which include creating a super-powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover.
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The Long March-5 Y5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-5 lunar probe, takes off from Wenchang Space Launch Center, in Wenchang, Hainan province
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