A landing zone has been prepared ahead of the return of an experimental lunar orbiter to Earth on Saturday.

According to personnel at the landing zone in Siziwang Banner in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, retrieval and search and rescue equipment has been installed and is fully operational. Favorable weather conditions have also been reported.

The compactness of the return module and its high re-entry speed will make retrieval difficult.

Xinhua has learned that there is no backup landing zone. If weather conditions are not suitable for the deployment of search helicopters, the ground search team will carry out the mission independently.

The return orbiter was launched on Oct. 24 to test technology to be used in the Chang'e-5 mission, the country's first moon mission.