Chang'e 5 makes first step in journey home

Shortly after the touchdown, the lander began to use a drill to obtain underground samples from 2 meters beneath the surface. It finished the underground operation at 4:53 am on Wednesday. The craft then started gathering surface soil with a mechanical arm. Samples were packed into a vacuum container inside the ascender.

All of the collection and packing processes ended at 10 pm on Wednesday, having taken a total of nearly 19 hours, much sooner than expected.

Project planners have allowed the lander-ascender combination to work about two days on the moon to accomplish the gathering and packing tasks.

Experts said that planners needed to leave sufficient time for the craft to perform the sophisticated collection operations in case of possible malfunctions, adding that completion ahead of schedule indicates the apparatus worked very well.