China's Tianwen-2 lifts off on mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth
China has launched an ambitious mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth – part of broader efforts to explore the solar system and make advances in planetary science, resource utilisation and defence.
The Tianwen-2 spacecraft lifted off aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China at 1.31am Beijing time on Thursday, according to the China National Space Administration.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
China's Tianwen-2 lifts off on mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth
China has launched an ambitious mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth – part of broader efforts to explore the solar system and make advances in planetary science, resource utilisation and defence. The Tianwen-2 spacecraft lifted off aboard a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China at 1.31am Beijing time on Thursday, according to the China National Space Administration.
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
China launches mission to retrieve asteroid samples
The decade-long mission is the latest in China's recent efforts to become a major space power. (EPA Images pic) BEIJING : China embarked today on its first mission to retrieve samples from a nearby asteroid, with the nighttime launch of its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, set to make the fast-growing space power the third nation to fetch pristine asteroid rocks. The decade-long mission is the latest in recent space efforts that include landing robots on the moon's far side, running a national space station in orbit and investing heavily in plans to send humans to the moon by 2030. The Long March 3B rocket lifted off at about 1.31am from the Xichang satellite launch centre carrying the Tianwen-2 robotic probe. Over the next year it will approach the small near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa, which is between 15 million km and 39 million km distant. China's official news agency Xinhua confirmed the launch of Tianwen-2, calling it a 'complete success'. Tianwen-2 is set to reach the asteroid in July 2026 and shoot a capsule packed with rocks back to Earth for a landing in November 2027. Then it will fly to its second target, main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS, on a journey lasting years, as the comet's closest distance to Earth is about 87 million miles. Located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Comet 311P is far closer to the sun than the region where typical comets originate. The odd location makes it unlikely to have the surface ice of typical comets that, once vaporised, forms their characteristic tails. Tianwen-2 will make in-depth studies of the main features of Kamoʻoalewa and 311P, including possibly the material ejected by the latter, an official of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said. Returning samples from Kamo'oalewa will be far more challenging than China's successful lunar missions, mainly because the asteroid's gravity is much lower than that of the moon, making landing and sampling much harder. Japan's Hayabusa, which fetched samples from a small asteroid in 2010, was the world's first such mission, followed by its Ryugu mission of 2019. In 2020, the first US asteroid retrieval mission, Osiris-REx, brought back samples from the Bennu asteroid. Kamo'oalewa is known as a quasi-satellite of Earth, a close celestial neighbour that has orbited the sun for roughly a century, Nasa says. Its size is anywhere between 40m and 100m. Tianwen-2's predecessor, Tianwen-1, another uncrewed spacecraft launched in 2020, was China's first mission to Mars, successfully landing on a vast plain known as Utopia Planitia after a six-month journey. China is already planning its third interplanetary mission, Tianwen-3, scheduled tentatively for 2028, which could make it the first country to retrieve samples from Mars. Last month CNSA announced payload capacity of 20kg for foreign countries and research institutions aboard the orbiter and lander that will explore the red planet.
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
China launches mission to retrieve asteroid samples
WASHINGTON: China on Wednesday embarked on its first mission to retrieve samples from a nearby asteroid with the nighttime launch of its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, a robotic probe that could make the fast-growing space power the third nation to fetch pristine asteroid rocks. China's Long March 3B rocket lifted off around 1:31 a.m. local time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which over the next year will approach the small near-Earth asteroid named 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, some 10 million miles away. Chinese state media Xinhua confirmed the launch of Tianwen-2 and dubbed it a 'complete success.' Tianwen-2 is scheduled to arrive at the asteroid in July 2026 and shoot a capsule packed with rocks back to Earth for a landing in November 2027. The mission is the latest example of China's swiftly expanding space programs, a streak of cosmic achievements in recent years that includes landing robots on the far side of the moon, running its own national space station in orbit and investing heavily in plans to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030. Japan's Hayabusa that fetched samples from a small asteroid in 2010 marked the world's first such mission. Japan did it again in 2019 with its Ryugu mission, followed by the first U.S. asteroid retrieval mission, OSIRIS-REx, that brought back samples from the Bennu asteroid in 2020. Kamoʻoalewa, the target asteroid for Tianwen-2, is known as a quasi-satellite of Earth, a close celestial neighbor that has orbited the sun for roughly a century, according to NASA. Its size is anywhere between 120 feet (40 meters) and 300 feet (100 meters).
