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The ascender of the Chang’e-6 probe lifted off Tuesday morning Beijing time and entered a preset orbit around the moon, the China National Space Administration said.

An ascender atop the lander will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting the moon.

An ascender module will ferry the samples back to the orbiter for the trip home and a final plunge by parachute in a return capsule, 53 days after launch.

Matt and I had flown from Washington, D.C., to Malawi toting 200 pounds of gear — drills, bolts, hammers, ropes, carabiners, mechanical ascenders, harnesses — in the hopes of establishing a new long route.

They then used “ascenders” that lock on the rope to pull themselves up El Capitan’s face, sometimes called “jugging.”