China has successfully put an unmanned spaceship on its way to the moon. The spaceship, named after the Chinese moon goddess “Chang’e 5”, is supposed to land on the earth’s satellite and bring rock samples back to earth for the first time in 44 years. Researchers are waiting with great curiosity for the lunar rock, which will be significantly younger than all previous samples and thus provide new knowledge about the history of the moon.

On a successful return, China would be in the USA and the Soviet Union in the 60 he and 70 years the third space travel nation to succeed in such a project. With a rocket of the type “Long March 5”, the spacecraft lifted off smoothly from the space station in Wenchang on the southern Chinese island of Hainan on Tuesday morning local time (Monday evening CET).

“Voller Success ” One and a half hours after take-off, the spaceship unfolded its awnings for the power supply. A little later, the control center commander Zhang Xueyu announced the “complete success of the launch of Chang’e 5”. The spaceship is expected to land on Sunday in a volcanic area named after the German astronomer Karl Rümker (1788 – 1862), which lies in the “ocean of storms” – in the upper, left-hand part of the earth-facing side of the moon.

NASA Science Director Thomas Zurbuchen congratulated China to a successful start. “We look forward to seeing how sample collection will advance the international scientific community,” wrote Zurbuchen on Twitter. “The moon is an exciting place!” He expressed the hope that scientists from other countries could also benefit from studying the “valuable cargo”.

The “Ocean of Storms” is 1.2 million years old. Moon rocks collected by the USA and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, are significantly older at 3.1 million and 4.4 million years ago. Researchers hope the samples will provide new information about the volcanic activity of the moon. The US Apollo missions brought with them around 380 kilograms of moon rock. The Soviet Union collected 300 grams – most recently with the unmanned “Luna 24 “1976, when 170 grams of moondust were brought to earth.