Chinese spacecraft carrying lunar rocks lifts off from moon

The ascender of Chang’e-5 spacecraft blasts off from the moon surface (China National Space Administration/Xinhua/AP)

A Chinese spacecraft has lifted off from the moon with a load of lunar rocks, the first stage of its return to Earth, the government space agency reported.

Chang’e 5, the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again, is the latest in a series of increasingly ambitious missions for Beijing’s space programme, which also has an orbiter and rover headed to Mars.