China has officially become the second-ever country to plant its flag on the surface of the Moon.
According to a report by CBS News, the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation's Chang'e-5 lunar mission lifted off from the Moon on Thursday, December 5, laden with rock samples.
However, what was arguably more exciting was what the mission left behind - with Beijing's space program using its lunar probe to plant the flag of the People's Republic of China into the surface.
The flag was planted in the Sea of Storms, in a volcanic region called Mons Rümke; northwest of the nearside of the Moon's surface.
According to a statement the CNSA made to the Global Times, the Chang'e-5 ascender has now successfully taken off from the lunar surface and sent its precious cargo to a lunar orbiter some 15 kilometers away with its 3,000-newton thrust engine.
Once there, the samples will be enclosed in a module which, if successful, will descend through the Earth's atmosphere to land in Inner Mongolia.
Wang Ya'nan, Chief Editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, later told the Times: "This is the first attempt in China's aerospace history to lift off from a celestial body other than Earth.
"The launch is a major test, in that the vehicle had to rely entirely on automatic maneuvers without any ground command."
"If the probe receives a command from the Earth to help it control the separation, altitude, and speed, there will be at least one-second delay, which will put the process in great danger."
Meanwhile, Cheng Chang, another leading member of the developer team, told the Times that the 2,000mm wide and 900mm tall flag had to be constructed with cutting-edge technology to preserve its color and shape in accordance with the harsh conditions of the Moon.
Chang stated: "An ordinary national flag on Earth would not survive the severe lunar environment."
Chang claimed that his research team spent the better part of a year selecting the right materials to ensure the flag could endure the extreme cold and extreme and heat for an indefinite period of time, before finally selecting the flag that was planted on Thursday night.
