The 8.2-metric ton Chang'e 5 has four components-an orbiter, lander, ascender and reentry capsule. It is China's largest and most sophisticated lunar probe.

The spacecraft was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket early on Tuesday morning at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province on the world's first mission since 1976 to return lunar samples to Earth.

Chang'e 5 followed an Earth-moon transfer trajectory for about 112 hours before the braking operation and had performed two orbital corrections, the administration said.