Tianwen 2 mission in good condition, 3 million km from Earth

China's first asteroid sampling mission, Tianwen 2, remains in good condition as of Friday morning, with a distance of over 3 million kilometers from Earth, according to the China National Space Administration.

In a brief news release on Friday afternoon the administration said the Tianwen 2 probe had been travelling in a transfer trajectory toward its destination, an asteroid called 2016 HO3, for over eight days, and had been working well.

The administration also published a picture taken by the spacecraft itself of its flexible circular solar arrays, designed to meet the power demand of the lengthy expedition.

The Tianwen 2 robotic probe was launched by a Long March 3B carrier rocket on May 29 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.

The CNSA said the Tianwen 2 mission is expected to accomplish multiple objectives through a single expedition, including the collection of samples from 2016 HO3 and flyby exploration of the main-belt comet 311P.