It's the first attempt by any nation to retrieve lunar samples.

Since the 19 seventies.

China has poured billions into its base pope program, and the probe's mission is a chance to show global competitors just how advanced it's become.

This'll Launch is a milestone for China, a spacecraft that symbolizes the country's technological prowess on its military might.

The unmanned rocket blasted off early on Tuesday morning local time from Hainan Island in the south.

Destination.

The Moon Theo Aerospace Control Center reports that the long March 5 rocket lifted off normally on the Channel five spacecraft has entered orbit as planned.

E can now announce that the launch mission of Long March 5 has been completed successfully Thing, the Channel five rocket is made up of several components.

One is the lander, which will dig for rocks and soil.

Thes materials will then be transferred into the return capsule for the journey back to Earth.

Current lunar program consists of three phases orbiting, landing and returning.

The Chang of five will carry out the third phase bringing moon samples back to Earth.

We hope this will be a success.

You know what?

Your jihad, If successful, it would be the first time in four decades that material has been brought back from the moon.

China's space ambitions are no secret and have been growing for years.

In 2000 and three, it secured a major breakthrough when it became the third country in the world to send a human into space.

10 years later, China hit another milestone, successfully landing an unpiloted spacecraft on the moon.

It was the first soft landing since the Soviet Union.

Success in 1976 more Chinese cheers in January 2019 in a global first, a lunar probe touching down on the far side of the moon, boosting China's space ambitions.

Mars is also in its sights.

This year, Beijing launched an unmanned probe to the planet in July.

It put the final satellite into orbit for its Chinese navigation system, the country's rival to US owned GPS.

But this lunar mission to bring back material from the moon is one of China's most ambitious to date, and one that Beijing is determined will be another success.

Joining me now is blending Bow, and he's an expert for space warfare, space policy and international relations in outer space at the University of Leicester.

Talked about one Thanks for joining D.

W.

What's the scientific importance of this mission?

Rocks Have bean brought back from the moon before.

Good morning.

Uh, scientific importance is that they could always do with more materials to analyze Andi.

They're going to be from, yes, more different areas as well.

So a Sfar as my limited understanding of the science, goes those sort of the major elements, because the amount of material brought back in the past to be very limited, so any more material is always a good thing form or scientific tests to be done.

All right.

So China has ambitious plans for space, including the building of its own space station.

Is it pure science that is driving these plans?

So when we talk about China's space program, it's important to think of the exploration where the robotic or crude is maybe one program among many space programs in China.

So I would separate the scientific and civil and exploration space program from the economic, commercial, military and intelligence space programs as well.

So at the moment now China has launched or has registered within the state around 350 plus satellites on.

They provide all sorts off essential services down on Earth for military and economic and infrastructural purposes, the space science and exploration.

That's very much about stimulating high tech industry, also as a partly for a techno nationalist purposes as well, which is not unique to China on sort of the propaganda and prestige rationales behind it as well of demonstrating China's high tech space capability.

So any large space program has a lot of motivations behind it.

But it is important, I think, to separate the space station, which is fairly benign compared to the more military elements off China's other parts of its space program.

Okay, well are China's space plans creating sort of a competition with other programs such as the American and European?

I would downplay sort of unintentional competition because China is becoming a comprehensive space power.

It's it's doing so on the back of its wider modernization of its economy, on military and infrastructure and spaces part off modern economic and military development, so that it's sort of it's it's entirely normal behavior, really, that China is investing in these massive spread of space capabilities nationally.

That does raise some concerns.

But in many ways, China is catching up to where the United States has lead over 30 40 years ago in terms off space infrastructure.

Andi, I would I would not sort of reduce China's actions based on what other people are doing in space as well.

China.

Developing its space systems of all kinds according to its own timetables on is not rushing about to die.

This taking it's time to do it right.

Okay.

Blethen bow on.

Expert for space warfare from the University of Leicester.

Thanks very much.

Thank you.