China Launches Tianwen-2 Mission to Retrieve Untouched Samples from Asteroid.
Science and Technology
On May 28, 2025, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) launched the Tianwen-2 spacecraft from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province aboard a Long March 3B rocket. The mission aims to retrieve pristine asteroid samples from near-Earth space.
- The probe is set to arrive at asteroid 2016 HO3 (Kamo'oalewa) by July 2026. This asteroid, considered a quasi-satellite of Earth, has orbited the Sun near Earth for over a century and measures between 120 to 300 feet.
- Tianwen-2 will collect rock samples and return them to Earth via a capsule scheduled for landing in 2027, making China the third country after Japan and the USA to collect pristine asteroid samples.
- China joins Japan’s Hayabusa (2010) and Ryugu mission (2019), along with NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission (2020), in retrieving samples from asteroids, marking a major milestone in planetary science.
Main Point :- (i) After the asteroid sample return, Tianwen-2 will perform an Earth swing-by maneuver and travel for six more years to reach a second target — 311P/PanSTARRS, an "active asteroid" in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, located about 140 million km from Earth.
(ii) This 480 m-wide asteroid, discovered in 2013, features six dust tails and shows characteristics of both asteroids and comets. Tianwen-2 will not land on it but conduct remote studies using scientific instruments.
(iii) The predecessor Tianwen-1 successfully landed on Mars in Utopia Planitia, while the upcoming Tianwen-3, expected to launch by 2028, aims to bring back samples from Mars — potentially making China the first nation to achieve this.
About China National Space Administration
Administrator : Zhang Kejian
Headquarters : Beijing, China
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