Posted: Mon, Dec 21, 2020, 5:49 AM ET (1049 GMT)
China's Chang'e-5 spacecraft returned samples of the moon to Earth on Wednesday. The spacecraft's return capsule landed in Inner Mongolia at 12:59 pm EST (1759 GMT) and was soon located by recovery teams. The recovery ends the space segment of the 23-day Chang'e-5 mission, which aimed to collect about two kilograms of rock samples thought to be billions of years younger than samples delivered by the U.S. Apollo and Soviet Luna missions. Chang'e-6, a backup mission, will now be repurposed for a landing in the lunar south pole region.

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