China postpones moon launch as mission fails to meet launch conditions

China said on Sunday it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon.

The Chang’e-7 spacecraft was originally set to lift off in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on China’s southern Hainan Island.

The mission does not meet the launch conditions, said the China Manned Space Agency in a brief statement, and “cannot take place during the planned window this year.”

The decision was made following a “comprehensive assessment,” the agency added, and was based on the principles of “prudence, reliability and absolute mission success.” It did not further elaborate on the reasons behind the decision.

Preparations have been carried out at the Wenchang launch site for the Chang’e-7 mission over the past weeks, the seventh in the Chang’e moon exploration program. It aimed at making breakthroughs in key technologies, the official Xinhua news agency previously reported.

It was set to explore permanently shadowed craters on the moon and conduct environmental and resource surveys of the lunar south pole, the Xinhua report said, citing the space agency.

Chang’e refers to a Chinese moon goddess. The Chang’e-6 probe returned to Earth in 2024 with rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon in a world first.

China’s mission was planned as the country vies with the United States to land astronauts on the moon and secure a near-permanent presence on its surface. In June, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the U.S. was “very much in a space race” against China, with both nations aiming to send astronauts — or, in China’s case, “taikonauts” — to the moon in the next few years. 

In April, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission became the first humans to travel around the moon in more than half a century. They are set to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor for the record-breaking 10-day flight.