China's Chang'e 5 mission (successful) delivered samples of moon rocks and dust to Earth on December 17, 2020. It marks first time in 44 years that moon rocks have been brought back to our planet.
The sample capsule landed in Inner Mongolia a little after 2:00 a.m. Thursday local time. The drop-off was the ending of a 23-day mission that began on November 23, China sent up Chang'e 5 from a site on Hainan Island. The mission's goal was (collect) at least four pounds of material and bring it back to Earth.
The material collected by Chang'e 5 was from a site in the northwest region of the moon's near side. This area was formed more recently, and the rocks here (think) to be only about 1.2 billion years old now. That means scientists (study) the material could learn more about the (evolve) of the moon.
Although Chang'e 5 was a short mission, it was one of (complex) projects undertaken by the Chinese space program so far. The country is far from done with the moon—Chang'e 6, (it) second lunar sample return, is ready to launch in 2023 or 2024.
