Beijing, Dec 3: China's latest lunar probe has finished taking samples of the moon's surface and sealed them within the spacecraft for return to Earth, the government announced Thursday.

Chang'e 5, the third Chinese probe to land on the moon, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing's space program, which also has a probe en route to Mars carrying a robot rover.

Also Read | AstraZeneca US COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Results Likely in Late-January: Live Breaking News Headlines Updates on December 3, 2020.

Chang'e 5 touched down Tuesday on a mission to return lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since 1976. The probe “has completed sampling on the moon, and the samples have been sealed within the spacecraft,” the China National Space Administration said in a statement.

Also Read | Chinese Firms Could be Delisted From US Stock Markets as House of Representatives Passes Bill.

Plans call for the upper stage of the probe to be launched back into lunar orbit to transfer the samples to a capsule for return to Earth.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)