US EditionChina launches spacecraft it says will return samples and yield ‘groundbreaking discoveries’
- On May 29, 2025, China initiated its Tianwen-2 mission by launching a Long March 3B rocket at the launch facility located in Xichang, Sichuan province.
- The mission is designed to gather samples from the small, unusual near-Earth asteroid known as Kamo'oalewa and to investigate the main-belt comet 311P/Panstarrs located in the asteroid belt.
- Tianwen-2 will spend about one year reaching Kamo'oalewa, orbit and survey it for landing sites, and use onboard instruments to analyze the asteroid and comet environments.
- The asteroid is 46–58 meters across, a quasi-satellite possibly formed from lunar debris, and samples will return to Earth by 2027 for detailed scientific analysis.
- If successful, Tianwen-2 will make China the third nation to bring back asteroid samples, advancing planetary science and aiding understanding of solar system formation and planetary defense.
107 Articles
107 Articles
China's Tianwen-2 Launches to Retrieve Samples from Mysterious Asteroid Kamo’oalewa
China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft launched on May 28 on a landmark asteroid sample return mission, aiming first to explore the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa before returning to Earth orbit and eventually heading back out to investigate Comet 311P. The mission lifted off at 1:31 AM local time from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Spanning ten years, it will seek to unlock secrets from two unusual celestial bodies in Earth’s planetary neighbo…
China launches first space mission to retrieve asteroid samples
China embarked on Thursday 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 m…
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