China has completed its first return mission to the moon with the successful re-entry and landing of an unmanned probe.
China launched an unmanned spacecraft in late October 2014 to test technologies to be used in the mission in 2017. Photo: AFP
Chinese state media said the probe landed in the inner Mongolia region after taking pictures of the earth and moon.
It is the first round trip to the moon for four decades following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s, the BBC reported.
China plans to send a space craft to the moon in 2017 and have it return to earth after collecting soil samples.