China launches Tianwen-2 mission to retrieve asteroid samples
發佈日期: 2025-05-29 11:06
TVB News
China launched its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen-2, in the early hours of Thursday.
The Tianwen-2 mission aims to achieve multiple goals over a decade-long expedition. It will collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and explore the main-belt comet 311P, which is more distant than Mars, in an endeavour to shed light on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.
A Long March-3B carrier rocket blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 1:31 a.m.
About 18 minutes later, the Tianwen-2 probe was sent into a transfer orbit from Earth to the asteroid 2016HO3, according to the China National Space Administration.
The spacecraft unfolded its solar panels smoothly, and the launch was declared a success.
