HAINAN, 3rd May, 2024 (WAM) -- China is poised to launch its historic Chang'e 6 lunar sample-return mission at 5:27 pm today, according to the China National Space Administration.
China Daily said that the Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket, which is designated to transport the Chang'e 6 robotic probe, has commenced the process of being fuelled with liquid oxygen propellants. This operation is taking place at the launch service tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in Hainan province.
The rocket is set to send the 8.35-metric-ton Chang'e 6, the heaviest lunar probe China has ever built, to an Earth-Moon transfer trajectory to open a complex, challenging journey of the lunar spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.
So far, humankind has fulfilled ten lunar sample-return missions, but all of the samples were collected from the near side of the Moon, leaving scientists around the world calling for a daring attempt to bring substances from the lunar far side, which never faces Earth.
The Long March 5 model is built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, the nation's major rocket maker and a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
The 57-metre-tall rocket has a liftoff weight of nearly 870 metric tons and is capable of ferrying spacecraft weighing up to 25 tons－the combined weight of 16 mid-size car－to a low-Earth orbit or 14 tons to a geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The coming flight will become the second time for the Long March 5 rocket model to lift a lunar mission.