China lands probe on surface of the moon to collect lunar rocks

(CNN)China has successfully landed a lunar probe on the surface of the moon, the country's National Space Administration said Tuesday. The probe's robotic arm will scoop up rocks from the surface, and a drill will bore into the ground to collect soil. The samples, expected to weigh about 2 kilograms (4.5 pounds), will be sealed into a container in the spacecraft. If successful, the mission will make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, following the United States and the former Soviet Union decades ago.Read MoreAstronauts from the United States brought back 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of rocks and soil between 1969 and 1972 during the Apollo program, while the Soviet Union collected 170.1 grams (6 ounces) of samples in 1976.When the samples are returned to Earth, scientists will be able to analyze the structure, physical properties and material composition of the moon's soil, China's space agency said. The mission may help answer questions such as how long the moon remained volcanically active in its interior, and when its magnetic field -- key to protecting any form of life from the sun's radiation -- dissipated.A Long March-5 rocket carrying Chang'e-5 spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the island of Hainan off China's southern coast on November 24.The spacecraft landed on a previously unvisited area of the moon -- a massive lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum, or "Ocean of Storms." This large dark spot, stretching about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) wide, could be a scar from a giant cosmic impact that created an ancient sea of magma, according to NASA.The landing marks the third time a Chinese lunar probe has successfully landed on the surface of the moon, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.CNN's Jessie Yeung and Mitchell McCluskey contributed to this report.