China's Tianwen-2 probe close enough to start tests on asteroid 1 billion km away, CCTV reports

China's state space administration announced on Monday its Tianwen-2 probe is now close enough to asteroid 2016H03 to begin investigating it, state broadcaster CCTV reported, after a journey of 400 days for over 1 billion km (621.3 million miles).

KEY DETAILS:

• Probe was launched on May 29, 2025, and has reached a distance of 20,000 km from the asteroid.

• Tianwen-2 will examine the asteroid's morphology, material composition and internal structure with a view to sampling at a later date.

• It has already taken images of the asteroid.