Three Chinese astronauts landed on the country’s still-under-construction space station on Thursday. With that, the Chinese station, 【小题1】 was called Tiangong, became one of two populated space stations in orbit. The completion of Tiangong, expected by the end of next year, 【小题2】 (be) another milestone for the space program whose recent missions have included bringing samples back from the moon and landing a robotic rover on Mars. It was said 【小题3】 the station would allow Chinese astronauts and scientists on the ground to carry out experiments in the weightless space environment.

China’s Chang’e 5 mission successfully delivered samples (样本) of the moon rock and dust to Earth on December 17, 2020. It 【小题1】(mark) the first time in 44 years that moon rocks have been brought back to our planet, since the Soviet Union’s unmanned Luna 24 mission in 1976. 

The sample capsule landed in Inner Mongolia 【小题2】a little after 2:00 a.m. Recovery teams in trucks and helicopters located the landing site shortly after and secured the sample 【小题3】 (contain).  

While Apollo-era moon rocks are estimated(估计) to be about 3 to 4 billion years old, the material 【小题4】 (collect) by Chang’e 5 is from a site in the northwest region of the moon’s near side. This area was formed a bit later, and the rocks here 【小题5】(think) to be only about 1.2 billion years old. That means scientists could learn more about the evolution of the moon and test out new techniques for estimating the age of geological samples from other 【小题6】 (planet) and moons (卫星). 

The Chang’e lunar program,【小题7】includes landing two lunar rovers (月球车) on the moon’s surface, has been 【小题8】(remarkable) successful. Although Chang’e 5 is a short mission, it’s one of 【小题9】 most complex projects undertaken by the Chinese space program so far. The country is far from done with the moon—Chang’e 6, a second lunar sample return, is scheduled 【小题10】(launch) in the near future.

Throughout history, mankind have been working hard on the space 【小题1】 (explore) to learn more about the universe though it was thought 【小题2】 (possible) before the mid-20th century. However, so many scientists were 【小题3】 (determine) to help humans realize their dream.

With the first satellite launched and orbiting around Earth successfully, Yuri became the first astronaut 【小题4】(send) into space in 1961. After that, American astronaut Neil Armstrong 【小题5】（succeed) in stepping onto the moon. Although the failure of Challenger was 【小题6】 (disappoint), human beings went on with their desire to explore the universe, the International Space Station being the best example.

Following Russia and America, China became the third country in the world to 【小题7】 (independent) send humans into space in 2003, 【小题8】Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth. From then on, China made great progress in its space programme.

All in all, 【小题9】 the difficulties, scientists hope future 【小题10】 (discovery) will not only enable us to understand how the universe began, but also help us survive well into the future.