Eight days after launching from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern China, the nation\u2019s Chang\u2019e 5 mission has landed at Mons R\u00fcmker on the Moon to collect approximately 2 kg of material for near-immediate return to Earth.<\/p>\n
The Chang\u2019e 5 lander began final descent at 09:58 EST (14:58 UTC) with an expected touchdown 15 minutes later at 10:13 EST (15:13 UTC).<\/p>\n
All broadcasts of the event were abruptly stopped just before the landing burn was to begin \u2014 throwing the mission into question with CCTV in China at first saying landing coverage would resume at 21:00 EST \u2014 an 11 hour delay to the landing. Minutes later, official sources \u2014 via social media \u2014 proclaimed a successful landing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The supposed-to-be highly public landing on the lunar surface came after a successful launch on 23 November, which was followed by a Trans-Lunar Injection burn and then three trajectory course corrections on the 24th, 25th, and 27th. <\/p>\n
The first of two Lunar Orbit Insertion burns was successfully accomplished on 28 November at 13:06 UTC before a second on 29 November at 12:34 UTC circularized the orbit above the Moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
This placed the combined Orbiter and Lander components in the correct orbit for spacecraft separation, which occurred successfully at 20:40 UTC on 29 November.<\/p>\n
On 30 November, the Lander began a series of burns to lower its orbit to allow for a landing today at Mons R\u00fcmker.<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The 15 minute descent to the lunar surface will be automated, with controllers back in China monitoring the progress of the Lander as it lowers itself toward the lunar surface.<\/p>\n While landing on another celestial body is difficult, China has a good track record for successfully getting probes to the Moon \u2014 with the nation\u2019s previous four lunar missions all being successful, including two landings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n