China to visit Earth’s ‘quasi-moon’ and bring a chunk of it back home

China’s National Space Agency today launched the nation’s first asteroid sample mission.

The Tianwen 2 probe rode a Long March 3B rocket into orbit at 1:31 on Thursday morning. Its first destination is Asteroid 2016HO3, aka 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, which orbits the Sun but, when seen from Earth appears to orbit our home planet, earning it the title of a “quasi-moon” or “quasi-satellite”. The NASA video below illustrates the situation.

Youtube Video

Scientists think 2016HO3 has a diameter of just 40 to 100 meters. After its discovery in 2016 NASA noted [PDF] that it’s an attractive target for exploration because it’s sometimes just 14 million kilometers away and can be reached by a spacecraft travelling at a modes 7km/second.

The Tianwen 2 mission plan calls for the probe to reach the asteroid in about a year and then orbit it for a while before landing ...