On July 6, China's Tianwen-2 probe successfully approached a distance of 20 km to asteroid 2016HO3, allowing the start of a scientific exploration process after a journey of about 1 billion km lasting approximately 400 days, the China National Aeronautics Administration (CNSA) announced.
According to Xinhua, China launched its first asteroid sample collection mission, Tianwen-2, on May 29, 2025, to achieve many goals in a decade-long journey: collecting samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and exploring the 311P main belt comet, which is further than Mars.
During the approach phase, the probe obtained images of this asteroid. According to CNSA, the mission's team took advantage of the optical navigation data collected during the close approach to fine-tune the asteroid's astronomical calendar, reducing the level of location uncertainty, which was previously only determined through ground observation.
On its journey to this asteroid, the probe performed maneuvers in deep space and adjusted its orbit. On June 6, 2026, the probe first detected the asteroid. On June 7, 2026, at a distance of 30,000 km, the probe entered a flat orbit with the asteroid, while on June 19, the probe approached the asteroid within 20,000 km.
CNSA said that next, the probe will gradually conduct more detailed scientific exploration activities to collect data on the morphology, material composition and internal structure of the asteroid, laying the foundation for later sample collection activities.
