The U.S. famously put men on the moon, But doing so again in the 21st century might not be the best use of public funds, for our nation or any others. That doesn’t mean there isn’t stuff on the moon worth studying, however, which is why China has a plan to send an unmanned module to the moon to collect samples in 2017 or so. In achieving that goal, China reached a milestone Monday, entering an eight-hour lunar orbit.

Launched in October, the service module previously demonstrated the effectiveness of China’s re-entry technology when it returned a capsule to Earth November 1. In the course of the eight day mission, the module reached the Earth-Moon Lagrangian (L2) position. It was the first time a Chinese craft had done so.

The latest mission will circle the moon for 127 minutes, and second- and third-stage braking maneuvers began in the early hours Monday morning. The current orbit takes the module within 125 miles of the moon’s surface at its nearest point, and out to 3,293 miles at its furthest.

The aim of the mission, dubbed “Chang’e 5,” is to make a soft, unmanned landing on the moon. It will then use robotic equipment to scoop up samples before returning them to Earth for analysis. The goal of this latest orbiting mission is to scout out potential landing sites for the planned 2017 mission.

According to Chinese state media, the current orbiting exercise is being run more or less in “full dress,” so to speak – the module is outfitted with loads of scientific equipment, and all of its support systems are operating as designed. Outlets reported in November that a camera system was included in the module’s gear. This would presumably be used to help identify potential landing sites, but the Chinese government has yet to release any images.

China’s lunar program has been a long time coming, beginning in 2007 with the Chang’e 1 program. 2010’s Chang’e 2 sent yet another orbiter, while 2013’s Chang’e 3 resulted in the successful deployment of China’s first-ever lunar rover. The Chinese have not ruled out manned missions to the moon sometime around 2020.