Chinese spacecraft returns to Earth with rocks from Moon

An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early Thursday, completing the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples.

In images broadcast on state television, a Chinese flag was flown at the snow-covered grasslands where the capsule landed in the country's remote north.

Scientists hope the samples will give insights into the Moon's origins and volcanic activity on its surface.

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The probe's return "demonstrates the complete accomplishment of China's first mission to collect samples from an extraterrestrial body," China's National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

The trip was also another high-profile chapter in China's bid to become a space superpower. China is now only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.

Chang'e-5, named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the Moon on December 1.

While there, it raised the Chinese flag, the country's space agency said.

When the probe left the Moon two days later, that marked the first time that China had achieved take-off from an extraterrestrial body. The module then went through the delicate operation of linking up in lunar orbit with the part of the spacecraft that brought the samples back to Earth.

The Chang'e-5 mission was to collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum -- or "Ocean of Storms" -- a vast, previously unexplored lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.

The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the Moon samples will be delivered to a research team for analysis and study, China's space agency said.

Thomas Zurbuchen, a top official at NASA's science mission directorate, congratulated China on the safe return of the capsule.

"The international science community celebrates your successful Chang’e 5 mission," he tweeted.

"These samples will help reveal secrets of our Earth-Moon system (and) gain new insights about the history of our solar system."

(with inputs)