Tianwen-2
CNSA2025–presentActive
sample_return469219 KamoʻoalewaTianwen-2
Active
334
days and counting
Live position
Not Earth-trackable
This mission operates in deep space — beyond the regime where SGP4 and CelesTrak TLEs apply. Real-time positioning needs NASA's JPL Horizons system, which isn't wired up yet. We track ISS, Tiangong, Hubble, and Chandra in low/high Earth orbit instead.
About this mission
China's first near-Earth asteroid sample-return mission. Targets the quasi-satellite Kamoʻoalewa — possibly a fragment of the Moon — with sample return to Earth in 2027 followed by an extended mission to comet 311P/PANSTARRS.
This mission has been operating for 334 days (0.9 years) — and it's still going.
Timeline
29 May 2025Still operating
334 days and counting
Tianwen-2 — 3D Model
sample_return classDrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
Procedural representation based on spacecraft class. Not to scale.