Chinese launch trans-lunar mission...

Chinese launch trans-lunar mission...  This is a practice mission, to test their ability to send a spacecraft to the moon and back to earth, then land.  They're planning to use a skip reentry method, a particularly sophisticated choice that requires enormous precision in navigation, and the ability to react to atmospheric variations.  The benefit is that it can use a smaller, lighter heat shield.  The U.S., back in the '60s and '70s, didn't have the ability to navigate precisely enough to do this, nor did we know enough about the upper atmosphere to be confident even if we did – so our Apollo missions needed large and very heavy ablative heat shields.  More here.

The next step for the Chinese space program is to land a robotic explorer on the moon (something they've already done once), collect some rock samples, then return to Earth.  Their space program is ambitious, and more than a little impressive...