CHINA launched an experimental spacecraft yesterday to fly around the moon and back to Earth in preparation for an uncrewed return trip to the lunar surface.

The eight-day programme is a test run for a 2017 mission to have a spacecraft land on the moon, retrieve samples and return to Earth.

That would make China only the third country after the United States and Russia to have carried out such a mission.

The spacecraft lifted off from the Xichang satellite launch centre, separated from its carrier rocket and entered Earth orbit shortly after, the State Administration of Science, Technology and National Defence Industry reported.

China’s lunar exploration programme, named after mythical goddess Chang’e, has already launched a pair of orbiting lunar probes and landed a craft on the moon last year with a rover onboard.

None of those missions was programmed to return to Earth.

Beijing has hinted at a possible crewed mission to the moon if officials decide to combine the human spaceflight and lunar exploration programmes.

The official Xinhua news agency said that the latest mission is to “obtain experimental data and validate re-entry technologies such as guidance, navigation and control, heat shield and trajectory design” for the future moonlander.

It will return to Earth using a Soviet-designed method in which it will first bounce off Earth’s atmosphere in order to slow it down to allow it to enter the atmosphere without burning up.

China is also developing the Long March 5 heavier-lift rocket needed to launch the more permanent Tiangong 2 space station.

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com