Long March 5 Ready for New Lunar Probe Launch Mission

A Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket, carrying the Chang'e 5 lunar probe, is ready for a new lunar program launch in late November at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province.

The rocket was transported to Wenchang by ship in late September and was then carried by special trucks to the launch center on Nov 17.

Test launch proceedings including general assembly and testing were completed before the transportation.

The upcoming launch will be the second applied launch of the rocket, which has already succeeded in sending China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe aloft.

Chang'e 5 is the sixth mission of China's lunar exploration program. It is expected to collect samples on the surface of the moon which will aid scientific study of the moon's origin and evolution.

It will be one of China's most difficult and complicated space missions.

The Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket, carrying the Chang'e 5 lunar probe, is ready for a new lunar program launch at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)