China's Chang'e-7 lunar mission launch has been unexpectedly postponed. The country's space agency officially announced this, as reported by infohub.kz.
According to the initial plan, the Chang'e-7 spacecraft was to be launched in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island in southern China. However, in a brief statement released on Sunday, the China Manned Space Agency said that the mission does not meet the launch conditions and cannot take place during the planned window this year.
The decision was made following a "comprehensive assessment," the agency added, based on the principles of "prudence, reliability and absolute mission success." However, no detailed reasons were provided.
Preparations for the Chang'e-7 mission have been carried out at the Wenchang launch site over the past weeks. This is the seventh mission in the Chang'e lunar exploration program. According to previous official reports, it aimed at making breakthroughs in key technologies.
The mission's goal is to explore permanently shadowed craters on the moon and conduct environmental and resource surveys of the lunar south pole, as reported by the official Xinhua news agency, citing the space agency.
Chang'e refers to a Chinese moon goddess. The previous 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.