This Chinese Spacecraft Is Traveling to One of Earth’s Quasi-Moons

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released the first image from its Tianwen-2 probe, currently over 3 million kilometers from Earth and en route to Kamo’oalewa, a near-Earth quasi-moon asteroid. Launched on May 29, 2023, Tianwen-2 aims to study Kamo’oalewa from a distance before landing on its surface in July 2026 to collect samples. After returning these samples to Earth, the spacecraft plans to use Earth’s gravity to slingshot toward another asteroid, 311P/PanSTARRS. The mission faces challenges such as landing on the asteroid’s low-gravity surface and will provide valuable data on the composition of rocky celestial bodies. Kamo’oalewa is one of seven known quasi-moons of Earth—asteroids that orbit the sun in a path similar to Earth’s but are not gravitationally bound to our planet. Discovered in 2016 near Hawaii, it is about