China launches Tianwen-2 to retrieve asteroid samples, aiming to become the third nation to bring back pristine space rocks after Japan and the U.S.
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| With the successful launch of Tianwen-2, China begins its first asteroid sample-return mission, targeting near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa for 2026 rendezvous. Image: Tianwen-2 |
Xichang, China – May 30, 2025:
China has successfully launched its first asteroid sample-return mission with the early morning blastoff of its Tianwen-2 robotic spacecraft, a milestone that could place the country alongside Japan and the United States in retrieving untouched rock from deep space.
At approximately 1:31 a.m. local time on Wednesday, a Long March 3B rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China, carrying the Tianwen-2 probe. The mission will target a small near-Earth asteroid named 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, which orbits about 10 million miles from Earth.
State-run Xinhua News Agency confirmed the launch as a "complete success," marking another ambitious leap in China’s rapidly expanding space program.
Tianwen-2 is expected to reach its asteroid destination by July 2026. Once there, it will land, collect samples, and then launch a return capsule to Earth, with reentry and landing scheduled for November 2027. If successful, this will mark China as only the third country in history to complete a sample-return mission from an asteroid.
Kamoʻoalewa, the mission’s target, is a quasi-satellite of Earth that has orbited the sun in a path near our planet for about a century, according to NASA. Estimated to be between 120 and 300 feet in diameter, the asteroid presents a unique opportunity to study the early solar system in its unaltered form.
Tianwen-2’s mission adds to China’s list of growing space achievements. In recent years, China has landed a rover on the far side of the Moon, launched and maintained its own space station in orbit, and announced plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface by the end of the decade.
The effort follows in the footsteps of pioneering missions from Japan and the U.S. Japan’s Hayabusa mission became the first to return asteroid samples in 2010, followed by its Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu in 2019. The U.S. completed its first successful asteroid sample-return mission with OSIRIS-REx, which delivered material from asteroid Bennu to Earth in 2020.
As international competition in space intensifies, Tianwen-2 underscores China’s ambition to become a dominant force in solar system exploration. The scientific returns from the mission are expected to provide critical insights into the formation of planets, the origins of water and organics in space, and the potential for future asteroid mining.