China's Tianwen-2 Probe Close Enough to Start Tests on Asteroid 1 Billion km Away

China's state space administration announced on Monday that its Tianwen-2 probe is now close enough to asteroid 2016H03 to begin investigating it, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The announcement came after a journey of 400 days covering more than 1 billion km (621.3 million miles). The 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, according to the report. The China National Space Administration made the announcement on July 6.