China's launch of an experimental spacecraft that will travel around the moon before returning to Earth is seen as the first step toward a manned mission to our only natural satellite, USA Today reported.

The vehicle departed the southwestern Xichang satellite launch center early Friday to "obtain experimental data and validate re-entry technologies such as guidance, navigation and control, heat shield and trajectory design" for the future mission, Chang'e 5, USA Today reported, quoting state-run news agency Xinhua. It was launched atop an advanced Long March-3C rocket.

Chang'e 5, to be launched in 2017, is supposed to land on the moon, collect samples and return to Earth. The Communist country would only be the third to accomplish such a feat. Only the United States and Russia have carried out similar missions in the past.

The People's Republic in 2003 already sent an astronaut into space and again was only the third nation to do so independently. Friday's initial mission is "vital in the steady development of China's space program, which observers say is working toward putting astronauts on the Moon," Australia's ABC News reported.

"This is the first time that they've ever tried to launch anything to the Moon and return it safely to Earth," said Morris Jones, a Sydney-based space analyst.

So far, the vehicle is on track to safely circle the moon and return home in about eight days, Xinhua announced in an update Friday afternoon. Quoting a statement from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, the news service said the spacecraft "trimmed its orbit ... because (it) is affected by external factors."

The voyage marks the first instance of China conducting a test involving a half-orbit around the moon, Xinhua reported. The spacecraft will travel at a height of 380,000 kilometers, or about 236,000 miles, above the lunar surface.