The Long March 5 rocket blasted off at 4:30 am today (24 November 2020) from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in China and took the "Chang'e-5" spacecraft to the Earth-moon transfer orbit. After landing on the lunar surface, Chang'e-5 will operate for about 2 days and attempt to bring around 2 kg of lunar soil samples back to the Earth. The samples would help scientists study the formation and evolution of the Moon. The last successful lunar sample return mission was the former Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976.

Chang'e-5 belongs to the "returning" phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, which consists of "orbiting", "landing" and "returning" phases. The "orbiting" and "landing" phases were completed in 2007 and 2013 respectively:

Orbiting: orbit the Moon (by Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2)

Landing: land on the Moon (by Chang'e-3 and Chang'e-4)

Returning: return soil sample (by Chang'e-5)

Click the link to revisit the rocket launch: https://youtu.be/MSMP52EmtOI?t=824