Philip J. Cunningham

Opinion | Late to the space race, China is making strides with Chang’e 5 moon landing

China may be a late contender in the space race but the success of Chang’e 5 is an important milestone that moves it ever closer to building a base on the moon

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People walk past a billboard with a quote from Chinese President Xi Jinping in a building at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Wenchang, Hainan province, on November 23, in the run-up to the successful launch of Chang’e 5. China is now a serious space contender. Photo: AP

Philip J. Cunningham

Published: 11:15am, 28 Nov 2020Updated: 11:53am, 28 Nov 2020

China is well on its way to being a moon power, not in leaps and bounds, but in carefully calibrated steps. The launch of Chang’e 5, which left the earth on November 24 and now orbits the moon, is an important milestone, not just for the rocks it aims to collect, but as a test of the technology necessary to establish a lunar base.

China may be a late arrival to the space race, long dominated by the United States and Russia, but it has not been for the lack of imagination. Chinese literary legend Lu Xun translated From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, hoping to promote an interest in science. Mao Dun credited the traditional legend of moon goddess Chang’e, after which the latest mooncraft is named, as a powerful native archetype for lunar exploration.

When Sputnik I, the world’s first man-made satellite was launched, Mao Zedong hinted that Chinese satellites would follow. During his 1957 Moscow visit, he stood with Nikita Khrushchev to hail the flight of Sputnik II, which was carrying space dog Laika on a lamentable one-way journey to oblivion.

The march of rocket science got sidetracked during the Cultural Revolution and China did not launch its own satellite, the Dongfanghong 1, until 1970. It famously beamed the iconic tune “The East is Red” back to earth, but saw little practical follow-up.

Fast forward 50 years and China is a contender. If everything goes to plan, the Chang’e 5 lunar lander will scoop up rock, detritus and debris samples, and return to earth in late December.

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

The 18,000-pound craft, launched from Hainan province by a Long March 5 rocket, is divided into four sections: a service module, a “returner” capsule designed for re-entry to earth, a lunar lander and lunar ascender.