Chang'e 7
Chang'e 7 — China's lunar south-pole mission. An orbiter, lander, rover and a hopping mini-probe will search near Shackleton crater for water ice: the hopper is designed to fly into a permanently shadowed crater, drill, and analyse the soil for water molecules on the spot. It scouts the region for China's planned International Lunar Research Station. Its Long March 5 launch from Wenchang was postponed on 23 August 2026, as its launch window opened: the China Manned Space Agency said the probe did not meet launch conditions and could not launch in its planned 2026 window. As of September 2026 no new launch date has been announced.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- CNSA
- Status
- Planned
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.365 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.391 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Chang'e 7 is China's push to the Moon's south pole — the cold, shadowed frontier where water ice may have hidden for billions of years. Built to launch on a Long March 5 — a launch postponed in August 2026, with no new date yet announced — it is really four craft in one: an orbiter to survey from above, a lander to touch down on the sunlit rim near Shackleton crater, a rover to explore, and — the mission's signature trick — a hopping mini-probe designed to fly down into a permanently shadowed crater floor that never sees the Sun, drill a sample, and analyse it on the spot for water molecules. Confirming and mapping that ice matters far beyond science: water can be split into drinking water, breathable oxygen and rocket fuel. Chang'e 7 carries payloads from several countries and scouts the ground for the China-led International Lunar Research Station planned for the 2030s, working with the Queqiao-2 satellite that relays its signals home.
- 2026Launch postponedMilestone
As its Long March 5 launch window opened at Wenchang, the China Manned Space Agency said the probe did not meet launch conditions and could not launch in its planned 2026 window. No new date has been announced.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image