China on track to launch Mars sample-return mission in 2028: 'If accurate, this represents a Sputnik moment'

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:52:39 +0000

China is making progress on its Tianwen 3 Mars sample-return mission, which aims to launch in 2028 and return a collection of Red Planet dirt and rock to Earth in 2031.

Source: space.com

China to launch a Moon mission that is unlike anything NASA has done

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:35:55 +0000

Lunar exploration has come a long way since the Soviet Union’s Luna-1 probe reached the Moon’s vicinity in January 1959. The Apollo missions and their successors showed the challenge is no longer simply to reach the Moon. It is to explore places human and conventional rovers cannot easily go, and ultimately determine whether the Moon itself can provide some of the resources that future explorers will need. China has spent two decades building an increasingly ambitious lunar exploration programme, named after Chang'e, the ancient Chinese goddess of the Moon. The Chang'e-7 mission is expected to set course for our celestial neighbour later this month, although a recent failure involving a different Chinese rocket has introduced some uncertainty over the launch date. Here’s what makes this latest mission so interesting.

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China on track to launch Mars sample-return mission in 2028: 'If accurate, this represents a Sputnik moment'

China to launch a Moon mission that is unlike anything NASA has done