China's plan to land unmanned craft on moon, return to Earth advances another step
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China's bold plan to land an unmanned spaceship on the moon before returning to Earth has moved another step forward with a test craft shifting into lunar orbit to conduct further tests.
The service module of a lunar orbiter that flew back to Earth in November had been sitting in a position that brought in into sync with Earth's orbit, known as the second Lagrange point. It had separated from the orbiter in November.
China plans to land a spacecraft christened Chang'e 5 on the moon in 2017 and have it collect at least 2 kilograms (4 pounds) of rock and soil samples before returning to Earth.
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If successful, that would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to meet such a challenge.