LOST IN SPACE

China to Launch Space Program to Collect Moonrocks

The program will be the first in 40 years dedicated to collecting lunar samples.

China announced a plan to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon this week to collect lunar rocks, marking the first such attempt to retrieve samples from the surface of the moon since the 1970s. The Chinese Chang’e-5 probe, named after a Chinese goddess, will be a test for Chinese technology, according to CNN. If successful, China will become only the third country after the U.S. and former Soviet Union to collect lunar samples. The U.S. Apollo program, which also sent the first men to the moon, brought back 842 pounds of rocks and soil. The Chinese samples will be used to study the formation and origins of the moon.