VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

China hailed as a success its pre-dawn launch on Tuesday of a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon in the first bid by any country to retrieve lunar surface samples since the 1970s, a mission underscoring Chinese ambitions in space.

The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4:30 a.m. Beijing time (2030 GMT on Monday) in a launch from Wenchang Space Launch Center on the southern Chinese island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) called the launch a success and said in a statement that the rocket flew for nearly 37 minutes before sending the spacecraft on its intended trajectory.

The Chang’e-5 mission, named after the ancient Chinese goddess of the moon, will seek to collect lunar material to help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formation. The mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space, ahead of more complex missions.

State broadcaster CCTV, which ran live coverage of the launch, showed images of CNSA staff in blue uniforms applauding and cheering as they watched the spacecraft climbing through the atmosphere, lighting up the night sky.

If the mission is completed as planned, it would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, joining the United States and the Soviet Union.

Upon entering the moon’s orbit, the spacecraft is intended to deploy a pair of vehicles to the lunar surface: a lander and an ascender. The landing is due to take place in about eight days, according to Pei Zhaoyu, a spokesman for the mission. The probe is due to be on the lunar surface for about two days, while the entire mission is scheduled to take around 23 days.

The plan is for the lander to drill into the lunar surface, with a robotic arm scooping out soil and rocks. This material would be transferred to the ascender vehicle, which is due to carry it from the surface and then dock with an orbiting module.

The samples then would be transferred to a return capsule for the return trip to Earth, with a landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region.

“The biggest challenges ... are the sampling work on the lunar surface, take-off from the lunar surface, rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit, as well as high-speed re-entry to Earth,” said Pei, also director of the space administration’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center.

“We can conduct sampling through circumlunar and moon- landing exploration, but it is more intuitive to obtain samples to conduct scientific research - the method is more direct,” Pei added. “Plus, there will be more instruments and more methods to study them on Earth.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Saudi Arabia and met its crown prince, an Israeli official said on Monday, in what would be the first publicly confirmed visit there by an Israeli leader as the countries close ranks against Iran.

Earlier, Israeli media said Netanyahu had secretly flown on Sunday to Neom, on the Red Sea, for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Reports of the meeting between the crown prince and Netanyahu were denied by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

“I met Pompeo at the airport and went with him to the meeting. I then took him back to the airport. Saudi and American officials were the only ones present throughout,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, has long championed the Palestinian cause and shunned official contacts with Israel.

Netanyahu, speaking publicly after the Saudi denial, was circumspect about any clandestine travel.

Asked at a meeting of his right-wing Likud faction about a Saudi visit, Netanyahu replied: “Are you serious? Friends, throughout my years I have never commented on such things and I don’t intend to start doing so now.”

Spokesmen for Pompeo declined comment.

But asked about the Israeli media reports, Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Army Radio: “The very fact the meeting happened, and was outed publicly, even if half-officially right now, is a matter of great importance.”

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz, in a speech, condemned “the irresponsible leak of the secret flight to Saudi Arabia”. (Reuters)

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) reminded his staff to maintain a balance in implementing the push-and-pull strategy as part of efforts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and recover the national economy.

Speaking from the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Monday, the President cautioned that the balance between push and pull must be maintained and care must be taken so that no policy triggers a second wave of COVID-19 transmission.

"The push-and-pull strategy, that we have reiterated from the beginning, should be regulated properly. Do not lose balance and raise the risk of a second wave, which could set us back again," he said during a limited meeting of the Committee for COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery (PEN).

The President urged the Committee for Handling COVID-19, PEN, as well as local governments to prohibit and not hesitate to intervene firmly in activities that could potentially violate health protocols.

"Take precautions as early as possible," he urged.

The President said that such a strategy has so far yielded results.

As of November 22, 2020, Indonesia's average active case rate for COVID-19 was pegged at 12.78 percent, which was much lower compared to the global rate of 28.41 percent.

Furthermore, the average recovery rate for COVID-19 patients in Indonesia was 84.03 percent, significantly higher than the global rate of 69.2 percent.

“Then, in the economic field, the trend of economic growth in the second quarter of 2020 from -5.32 percent improved in the third quarter of 2020 to -3.49 percent. We must also fix this so that the fourth quarter of 2020 is better than the third quarter of 2020," President Jokowi remarked. (Antaranews)