(250529) -- XICHANG, May 29, 2025 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianwen-2 probe, atop a Long March-3B carrier rocket, lifts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 29, 2025. China launched its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen-2, in the early hours of Thursday, an endeavour to shed light on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.
The Tianwen-2 mission aims to achieve multiple goals over a decade-long expedition: collecting samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and exploring the main-belt comet 311P, which is more distant than Mars. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)
