Chinese moon probe successfully returns to earth

The probe is the first to fly around the moon for almost 40 years

Technicians checking the unmanned probe landed in Dorbod (Siziwang) Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia region (Getty)

An unmanned Chinese probe successfully returned to earth yesterday after circumnavigating the moon, bolstering the country’s status as a space power.

The probe, officially known as Chang’e 5-T1, broke through the earth’s atmosphere at 6.13am local time on Saturday and landed in Inner Mongolia.

It is the first time in almost 40 years that a spacecraft has returned to earth after travelling around the earth’s only natural satellite.

Dubbed “Xiaofei” or “Little Flyer”, the probe travelled at speeds of up to 25,000mph and was more than 250,000 miles from the earth at its furthest point.

A Soviet-era method, where the craft bounces off the earth’s atmosphere, was used to slow the probe down on its descent to earth and avoid it burning up.

China plans to send another craft to the moon in 2017 to collect soil samples. If successful, China would become only the third country, after the United States and Russia, to accomplish such an achievement.

The rising eastern superpower has already embarked on other space exploration missions, including sending two probes to the moon that did not return, and there are plans for crewed space missions in the future.

One of the country’s rovers, the Jade Rabbit, which reached the moon on 14 December 2013, is still on the satellite’s surface but has failed to complete its mission, after equipment malfunctioned in January this year.

Beijing sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation to independently realise manned space travel.

Additional Reporting by AP