China launches rocket to retrieve asteroid samples

China has successfully launched a spacecraft in its inaugural mission to collect fresh asteroid samples, a milestone that experts say marks a major advancement in Beijing’s interplanetary exploration goals.

At approximately 1:31 AM on Thursday, May 29, 2025, China’s Long March 3B rocket took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre located in Sichuan province, southwestern China.

The rocket carried the Tianwen-2 spacecraft, a robotic probe that could position China as the third country to retrieve untouched asteroid material.

Chinese state media reported that the spacecraft successfully deployed its solar panels, with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) declaring the launch a success.

Over the next year, Tianwen-2 will travel to a small near-Earth asteroid located about 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) away, known as “469219 Kamoʻoalewa” or 2016HO3.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid believed by scientists to possibly be a fragment of the Moon by July 2026.

It will then collect rock samples and send a return capsule back to Earth, scheduled to land in November 2027.

If the mission succeeds, China will become the third nation to retrieve asteroid samples, following Japan’s 2010 mission and the United States in 2020.

Shan Zhongde, CNSA’s director, called it a "significant step" in China’s interplanetary exploration journey, expecting it to bring “groundbreaking discoveries” and deepen humanity’s cosmic knowledge.

Chinese media noted that this decade-long mission has several objectives, including collecting samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and studying the main-belt comet 311P.

It will also gather data on their physical characteristics, such as orbital dynamics, rotation, size, shape, and thermal properties.

Researchers will analyze the samples to uncover the asteroids’ physical, chemical, and mineral composition, along with their structural features.

Asteroid 2016HO3, a quasi-satellite of Earth, has maintained a synchronized orbit with our planet for nearly a century and measures between 40 and 100 meters (120 to 300 feet) in diameter.

In recent years, China has rapidly advanced its space program, including landmark achievements such as landing robotic missions on the Moon’s far side and collecting the first-ever samples from that region in June last year.

China currently operates its own Tiangong space station—the only active space station besides the International Space Station (ISS)—after being excluded from the ISS program by the US.

In April, three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth’s north after spending six months aboard Tiangong, marking China’s longest-ever crewed space mission.

Beijing has also made significant investments in crewed lunar missions, aiming to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030.

Meanwhile, the US plans to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, with NASA’s Artemis 3 mission targeted for launch as early as 2026.