China's Latest Space Mission Will Grab Samples of a Near-Earth Asteroid and Comet

The latest mission out of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will examine not one, but two space bodies. After Tianwen-2 launches Wednesday afternoon, it will rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid, then send samples to Earth before setting out to meet with a distant comet.

If all goes according to plan, Tianwen-2 will launch from a Long March 3B rocket at Xichang spaceport around 1:30 p.m. EDT. (In Beijing, that's 1:30 a.m. on May 29.) A translated statement shared Monday says that "various preparations for the mission [were] progressing steadily" and that CNSA was preparing to fill the rocket with propellant.

After departing Xichang, Tianwen-2 will make its way to Kamo‘oalewa, an asteroid identified by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS) at Hawaii's Haleakala Observatory in 2016. Kamo‘oalewa's has many quirky traits: It rotates rapidly (about once every ...