China's Chang'e-5 Team awarded 2023 Laurels for Team Achievement

The Chinese team responsible for the 2020 Chang'e-5 mission that brought lunar samples back from the moon has been honored by the International Academy of Astronautics.

At the academy's annual meeting Oct. 1 in Baku, Azerbaijan, the team won the Laurels for Team Achievement, the highest award presented by the IAA in 2023.

The award recognizes aerospace project mission teams that demonstrate outstanding performance and achieve extraordinary results in the aerospace field.

China launched the Chang'e-5 probe to the moon on Nov. 24, 2020, aboard a Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site. On Dec. 17, 2020, a return craft landed in Inner Mongolia carrying the lunar samples collected by the probe. It was China's first extraterrestrial sample return mission.

Hu Hao is chief designer of the Change'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions at the China National Space Administration. He said after 10 years of hard work, the Chang'e-5 team achieved fruitful results in innovation, scientific research, and international cooperation. The Chang'e-6 mission will continue to expand international cooperation projects and welcome more international partners to join China's lunar exploration project.