SHANGHAI: A Chinese probe carrying samples from the lunar surface successfully docked Sunday with a spacecraft orbiting the moon, in another space first for the nation, state media reported.

The manoeuvre was part of the ambitious Chang'e-5 mission -- named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess -- to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades. The cargo capsule carrying lunar rocks and soil lifted off from the surface on Thursday, and docked with the orbiter on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the China National Space Administration (CNSA). Xinhua said it was China's first "rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit". The cargo capsule's departure from the lunar surface on Thursday was also a first: the first liftoff of a Chinese craft from an extraterrestrial body.