China’s national space administration revealed on Monday that its Tianwen-2 spacecraft has completed a 400-day journey spanning more than 1 billion kilometers — roughly 621 million miles — and is now positioned close enough to asteroid 2016H03 to begin scientific study. The announcement was made through China’s state broadcaster CCTV.
The probe lifted off on May 29, 2025, and has since closed to within 20,000 kilometers of the asteroid. Scientists have already captured images of the space rock as the mission moves into its next phase.
Researchers plan to use the spacecraft to analyze the asteroid’s physical shape, the materials it is made of, and what lies beneath its surface. Those findings will help guide a future effort to collect samples directly from the asteroid.
