Tianwen-2

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Tianwen-2 is China's first attempt to bring home a piece of an asteroid. Launched on 28 May 2025, it spent about 400 days crossing roughly a billion kilometres to reach 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, one of Earth's small quasi-satellites — a body that loops along with Earth around the Sun and may even be a chip knocked off the Moon. Arriving in mid-2026, the spacecraft began surveying the tiny, fast-spinning rock from close range to choose a sampling site, carrying three different ways to grab material: hovering and touching, a quick touch-and-go, and anchoring itself with drills. The plan is to seal a sample of at least 100 grams, swing back past Earth to drop the return capsule in late 2027, and then fly on — using the same spacecraft to rendezvous with the active main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS in the 2030s. It is a bold two-for-one mission that would make China only the third nation to return an asteroid sample.

1. 2025Launch on a Long March 3BLaunch

   China's first asteroid sample-return mission lifts off from Xichang toward the quasi-satellite Kamoʻoalewa.

2. 2026Arrival at KamoʻoalewaArrival

   After ~400 days and ~1 billion km, Tianwen-2 reaches the tiny asteroid and returns its first close-up images.

3. 2027Planned departure with a sampleMilestone

   After surveying and sampling the asteroid, the spacecraft is expected to head back toward Earth.

4. 2027Planned Earth sample returnMilestone

   The return capsule is expected to drop the asteroid sample to Earth; the mothership flies on toward comet 311P/PanSTARRS.

Images

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