It was morning in China when the Chinese test capsule Chang’e 5 T1 landed successfully in Mongolia. The mission was launched on October 23 and in the following days flew around the Moon before returning to Earth. The spacecraft was composed of a service module and a return vehicle, which is the capsule that has landed.
This success is important because it represents a fundamental test for the Chang’e 5 mission scheduled for 2017. A robotic spacecraft will have to make a landing on the Moon to take samples to return to Earth. It was therefore necessary to verify that the return vehicle would properly separate from the service module and the capsule could land at the end of the mission.
It wasn’t an easy mission because the return vehicle approached the Earth at a speed over 11 km/s (about 7.5 mi/s). It needed to entr the atmosphere at the correct angle to avoid being destroyed. To slow down, it’s designed to bounce on the edge of the atmosphere before its final re-entry but it needed a remarkable precision in maneuvering.
The re-entry into the atmosphere was the most difficult step of the entire mission. The high temperature reached on the return vehicle’s exterior generated a layer of ions that interrupted the contact with the control center. However, it’s been watched by various stations on the ground until it landed.
The mission 4M seems to have succeeded as well because the signal from the radio beacon it was carrying was picked up by amateur radio operators as well. The radiation data collected by the dosimeter during the journey will certainly be analyzed carefully and will be useful also for future manned missions.
The spacecraft was nicknamed Xiaofei on Chinese social media, which means little flyer. These Chinese space missions have a lot of followers at home while China is increasingly becoming a power in this field. The lunar missions are one of the largest deeds in which the nation is currently busy and the success of the Chang’e 5 T1 mission is important for their future.
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