A spacecraft designed to test reentry techniques for a future lunar-sample return mission lifted off from the Xichang launch facility on a Long March 3C Oct. 23 (Oct. 24 local time) on a week-long mission that will take it around the Moon. Citing a spokesman for the China National Space Administration, China Daily's English-language edition says the testbed will return to Earth after a swing around the Moon to test a "skip" reentry technique to bleed off velocity before a parachute touchdown in the Gobi Desert. Like NASA's upcoming Exploration Flight Test with an instrumented Orion crew vehicle test article, the Chinese mission is apparently intended to test reentry loads on a lunar return. China Daily says the testbed will hit Earth's atmosphere at almost 11.2 kps (6.7 mi./sec.) and then fly though one or more skips in and out of the atmosphere before reentering and landing. The test is part of development work for the planned Chang'e-5 mission, which is scheduled to send a lander to the lunar surface in 2017 and return samples of lunar regolith to Earth, according to China Daily.
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