Flames and exhaust trail behind a Long March-5 rocket carrying the Chang'e 5 lunar mission after it lifted off at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Wenchang in southern China's Hainan Province, early Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. China launched an ambitious mission on Tuesday to bring back material from the moon's surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
By Joe McDonald
A Chinese robot probe sent to return lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s landed on the moon Tuesday, the government announced, adding to a string of increasingly bold space missions by Beijing.
The Chang’e 5 probe “successfully landed” at its planned site, state TV and news agencies reported, citing the China National Space Administration. They didn’t immediately announce any more details.
The probe, launched Nov. 24 from the tropical southern island of Hainan, is the latest venture by a Chinese space program that fired a human into orbit in 2003, has a probe en route to Mars, and aims eventually to land a human on the moon.
Plans call for the robot lander to drill into the lunar surface and load 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rocks and debris into an ascent stage that will blast off to return them to Earth.
If it succeeds, it will be the first time scientists have obtained fresh samples of lunar rocks since a Soviet probe in the 1970s.
The Chang'e 5 flight is China's third successful lunar landing. Its predecessor, Chang'e 4, became the first probe to land on the moon's little-explored far side.
The latest flight includes collaboration with the European Space Agency, which is helping to monitor the mission.
China's space program has proceeded more cautiously than the U.S.-Soviet space race of the 1960s, which was marked by fatalities and launch failures.
In 2003, China became the third country to fire an astronaut into orbit on its own after the Soviet Union and the United States. It also launched a crewed space station.
Space officials say they hope eventually to land a human on the moon but no timeline or other details have been announced.
China, along with neighbors Japan and India, also has joined the growing race to explore Mars.
The Tianwen 1 probe launched in July is en route to the red planet carrying a lander and a robot rover to search for water.
2021 was an exciting year for space innovations, but 2022 could hold even more in store. Cheddar took a deep dive into the space mission on tap for the year ahead.
The United States purchased over 600,000 doses of a monoclonal antibody treatment from Glaxosmithkline and Vir Biotechnology, bringing the total worldwide doses purchased to 1.7 million. This comes as the country attempts to ramp up treatment options as cases of the omicron variant continue to surge. Dr. Asha Shah, Director of Infectious Diseases at Stamford Health joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
As the pandemic slammed the brakes on the nation's economy in 2020, America's greenhouse gas emissions reached their lowest levels in at least three decades. However, as the world, and the economy re-opened, 2021 told a much different story as emissions surged. Biden's flagship 'Build Back Better' act involves billions in spending on electric cars and renewables, in an effort to cut U.S. emissions, experts are still skeptical that the nation will meet the current 2030 target. Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, joins Cheddar News.
Amid the omicron surge, a new debate has emerged about whether or not throat swabs are more effective than nasal swabs for COVID testing. Dr. William Schaffner, MD, professor of infectious diseases, Vanderbilt Medical Center, sat down with Cheddar's News Wrap to weigh in on the dispute. "Should there be a change? You've got to do the studies, show that in the field [a throat swab] works as well or better than the nasal specimen," he said. "Let's not do it off our hips, as we say."
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is declaring a state of emergency after Monday's winter storm left hundreds of drivers stranded on the interstate for more than 24 hours.
The snow also knocked out power for many residents, with more than 100,000 outages remaining days later.
Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley national laboratory, discusses recent weather disasters.
As the need for COVID-19 testing increases, so does the price of the tests themselves. An agreement with The White House and several major companies to sell the tests at a lower cost has now expired, sending prices up as retailers struggle to keep kits on shelves. Dr. Thomas McGinn, executive VP of physician enterprise at Common Spirit Health, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A new report shows 2021 saw a surge in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, indicating that the country remains far off track from meeting President Biden's climate change targets. Biden previously pledged to cut the nation's emissions in half by 2030, and now experts warn that immediate action must be taken in order to get the nation back on track. Zeke Hausfather, director of climate and energy at The Breakthrough Institute on U.S. Emissions and Global Temperatures, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Electric vehicles are quickly becoming an accessible way for consumers to slash emissions as legacy automakers begin to electrify their fleets and world leaders including President Joe Biden push for broad EV adoption. But consumers have concerns about EV range, the availability of charging stations, and more. What if it were both helpful to consumers — and feasible from a climate change standpoint — to keep hybrid models that run on gas on the market? Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute & Toyota Motor Corporation's Chief Scientist joins Cheddar Climate to discuss his team's research about 'carbon return on investment,' how Toyota is electrifying its fleet, and more.
According to a recent analysis compiled by The Washington Post, more than four in 10 Americans lived in areas hit by climate-related disasters in 2021. Jonathan Porter, Chief Meteorologist at AccuWeather, joined Cheddar Climate to discuss what this means and what can be done to prevent severe weather events from becoming even worse.
It's a painfully cold week across a large portion of the U.S. with more than 185 million Americans experiencing below-freezing temperatures on Monday and 10 million of them dealing with dangerous sub-zero temps.
