Tianwen-2 begins close approach to asteroid Kamooalewa, first anchor-and-attach sampling attempt
China's Tianwen-2 probe begins its close approach to asteroid Kamooalewa today, closing within 20 km. Scientists suspect the quasi-moon is a fragment of the Moon. The mission will attempt the first anchor-and-attach sample grab ever tried on an asteroid, targeting a sample return
China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft begins its close approach to the near-Earth asteroid Kamooalewa today, closing to within about 20 kilometers of an object roughly the size of the Statue of Liberty. Kamooalewa is a quasi-moon, a small body that loops around the Sun in near lockstep with Earth, and researchers have long suspected it may be a fragment blasted off the Moon by an ancient impact. If that theory holds, the material Tianwen-2 brings home would be the first sample of lunar rock ever collected far out in deep space rather than from the Moon's surface. The mission plans to spend months characterizing the asteroid before attempting collection. It will use the touch-and-go method pioneered by Japan's Hayabusa2 and NASA's OSIRIS-REx, and then try something no mission has done before: an anchor-and-attach grab, physically securing itself to the surface to pull between 200 and 1,000 grams of material. The sample capsule is scheduled to separate and land near the Jiuquan launch center around November 2027. What makes this attempt notable is the engineering risk. Anchoring to a low-gravity body that may be little more than a loose pile of rubble has never been tested in flight, and success would give mission planners a second technique for future asteroid sampling. According to reporting from China-in-Space and TechTimes, the probe launched in May 2025 and has spent more than a year in transit to reach today's milestone.