In a first such attempt, China will send its lunar probe Chang’e 5 to land on the moon and return with samples in the second half of 2017, officials said on Friday.

According to State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), it will be the first time a Chinese probe will land on the moon, collect samples and return to Earth and the third stage of China’s lunar exploration endeavour.

Chang’e-5 will launch from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre in the second half of next year on top of a new generational Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket, which will make its first flight around September this year. The complex mission involves landing and take-off from the Moon’s surface, robotic rendezvous and docking 380,000 kilometres away in lunar orbit, and returning a secured sample to Earth at the required high velocity.

If Chang’e-5 is successful it will be the first lunar sample return since Luna 24 by the USSR in 1976, and make China only the third country to return samples from the surface.

As well as achieving fascinating scientific goals, Chang’e-5 would demonstrate a number of technologies and techniques necessary for a crewed mission to land on the Moon.

China’s space agency says that Chang’e-5 marks the beginning of the final stage of China’s three-step ‘orbit, land, return’ lunar expedition Project (CLEP). The first stage of the lunar expedition was achieved by sending Chang’e 1, a circumlunar satellite, in 2007. China landed its first lunar probe Chang’e 3 on the moon’s surface in 2013 while an unnamed spacecraft reached the moon’s orbit and then returned to earth at the end of 2014.

Beijing is also planning to be the first country to land on the far side of the moon. That mission will be carried out by Chang’e-4, a backup for Chang’e-3, and is due to be launched in 2018, according to SASTIND. It also plans to orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover around 2020.

Chang’e 5 will not mark the end of China’s lunar exploration ambitions, however. The country will also unveil a new generation of carrier rockets including Long March 5 and 7 in 2016, along with other new satellites and space labs.