China launches Chang’e-5 mission to bring back rocks from moon

China has launched a rocket carrying its Chang’e-5 robotic spacecraft to the moon to collect and bring back lunar – the first such mission by any country since the 1970s. The nation’s largest carrier rocket, the Long March-5, lifted-off at 4.30am Beijing time on November 24, 2020, from Wenchang space launch centre on the southern island of Hainan.