After two days, when the surface operations are completed, a second 3,000-newton-thrust engine on the ascender will lift it to rendezvous and dock with the reentry module. It will transfer the lunar samples to the module and then undock from it.

The combination of orbiter and reentry capsule will then return to Earth orbit, where the pair will break up and the reentry capsule will conduct a series of complicated maneuvers to return to a preset landing site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in mid-December.

The entire mission is scheduled to take about 23 days, according to the administration.