Long March 5
First element of Chinese space station ready for liftoff
The core module of China’s space station is packaged inside the nose cone of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket for liftoff late Wednesday (U.S. time), the first of 11 launches to deliver astronauts, supplies, experiments, and new laboratory modules to build out the orbiting complex before the end of 2022.
Live coverage: Chinese sample return spacecraft completes docking in lunar orbit
After launching Nov. 23 and arriving in lunar orbit over the weekend, China’s Chang’e 5 sample return mission landed on the moon Tuesday, targeting a volcanic region in the Oceanus Procellarum region. On Thursday, the craft’s ascender vehicle took off to begin the trip back to Earth, followed by a successful docking with the mission’s return vehicle in lunar orbit Saturday.