5 days ago
China launches space mission to retrieve asteroid samples
STORY: :: China launches its first asteroid sample mission with the Tianwen-2 spacecraft
:: May 29, 2025
:: Tianwen-2 will reach the asteroid in July 2026 and return samples in November 2027
:: Xichang, China
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.
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.
