Chang'e 7
CNSA (China) · Lander · 2026In development
Spacecraft and Long March 5 both at Wenchang; launch targeted late August 2026, south-pole landing attempt late 2026 (as of Jul 18, 2026)
Chang'e 7 is China's most complex robotic Moon mission yet: an orbiter, lander, rover and a rocket-powered hopping probe flying together to hunt for water ice at the lunar south pole. Despite loose 'mid-2026' phrasing in some English coverage, it had not launched as of July 18, 2026: the spacecraft reached Wenchang in April and its Long March 5 arrived July 12-13, with liftoff targeted for late August 2026. If the landing succeeds, its targeted site at 88.8 degrees south would be the closest to a lunar pole any spacecraft has ever touched down.
Facts as of July 20, 2026, from the sources listed below.
8.2tonnes
launch mass of the four-spacecraft stack
88.8°S
targeted latitude, the closest to a lunar pole ever attempted
21
science payloads, six of them international
4
spacecraft in one mission: orbiter, lander, rover, hopper
Targets are the operator's current plan (as of July 20, 2026) and can change.
Not yet flown. Dates on this page are the operator's current targets, tagged with when they were announced, and can change.
Commonly wrong. Three recurring errors in English coverage. First, 'Chang'e 7 will land at Shackleton crater' overstates it: the lander targets a sunlit peak near the crater's southeast ridge (88.8 S, 123.4 E preferred, not yet officially final), and only the hopper is meant to fly into shadowed craters. Second, the hopper is often called a 'drone'; it hops on rocket thrust and legs, since propellers are useless without an atmosphere. Third, older articles still carry the pre-slip '2024 launch' or vague 'mid-2026' dates; as of July 18, 2026 it had not launched, with late August 2026 the working target. Payload counts also vary (18 vs 21) depending on whether Queqiao-2's three hosted instruments are included.
01Mission facts
| Status (as of Jul 18, 2026) | Not yet launched; spacecraft and Long March 5 in final assembly and testing at Wenchang, liftoff targeted late August 2026 |
| Launch window (official) | Second half of 2026, announced by the China Manned Space Agency on April 10, 2026 |
| Spacecraft arrived at Wenchang | April 9, 2026, flown to Hainan ahead of pre-launch testing |
| Rocket delivered | Long March 5 arrived by sea at Wenchang July 12-13, 2026 (12th Long March 5 flight) |
| Architecture | Orbiter + lander + rover + rocket-powered hopping probe, about 8,200 kg at launch |
| Landing target | Peak near Shackleton crater's southeast ridge, 88.8 S / 123.4 E (preferred; backups near Shoemaker and Haworth); landing accuracy goal better than 100 m |
| Mission profile | About 90 days in lunar polar orbit surveying the site before a landing attempt around the end of 2026 |
| Payloads | 21 science payloads cited by Chinese media, including 6 international (Egypt/Bahrain, Switzerland, Thailand, Italy, Russia, ILOA's ILO-C telescope) |
| Hopper | Legged, rocket-propelled probe carrying the LUWA water-molecule analyzer; designed for repeated flights into permanently shadowed craters |
| Relay | Queqiao-2 relay satellite (launched March 20, 2024), which also carries three mission payloads |
| Science goal | First direct on-surface detection and analysis of water ice at the lunar south pole; site survey for the ILRS |
| Design life | About 8 years of planned operations |
Site: 88.8000°S, 123.4000°E · Targeted site (preferred): illuminated peak near Shackleton crater's southeast ridge (source)
02Mission timeline
Late Dec 2023
Preferred landing area published (National Science Review study: illuminated rim area of Shackleton)
20 Mar 2024
Queqiao-2 relay launched
9 Apr 2026
Spacecraft arrives at Wenchang
10 Apr 2026
Official launch window confirmed: second half of 2026 (China Manned Space Agency)
12 to 13 Jul 2026
Long March 5 delivered by sea to Wenchang
Targeted Late Aug 2026
Launch (as of Jul 18, 2026)
Targeted Around end of 2026
Landing attempt, after roughly 90 days of orbital site survey (as of Jul 2026)
Teal dots: events that physically happened in flight or on the Moon. Grey: announcements, namings, contracts, and targets.
03The mission
Chang'e 7 is the opening move of the fourth phase of China's lunar program and the first of two robotic precursors to the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). Where Chang'e 5 and 6 were sample-return sprints, Chang'e 7 is a long-duration survey: a roughly 8,200 kg stack carrying an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a novel 'mini flying probe,' a legged, rocket-powered hopper designed to leap from the sunlit landing zone into nearby permanently shadowed craters, places sunlight has not reached in potentially billions of years.
The mission's central question is water. The hopper carries a soil water-molecule analyzer (LUWA) that uses mass spectrometry to sniff for water ice, methane and other volatiles inside the shadowed cold traps, and Chinese officials have framed the goal plainly: to make China the first nation to directly measure water ice in south-pole soil on the surface. The answer matters far beyond national bragging rights, because accessible ice would reshape the economics of every planned polar base, ILRS and Artemis alike.
The preferred landing target, published by mission scientists in late 2023 and repeated in Chinese coverage since, is a near-permanently illuminated peak beside Shackleton crater's southeast ridge at about 88.8 degrees south, 123.4 degrees east, with backup sites near Shoemaker and Haworth craters. That is not 'inside Shackleton': the solar-powered lander needs the light of the crater's rim highlands, and only the hopper is meant to fly down into the dark. For comparison, the current southernmost lunar landing is Intuitive Machines' IM-2 Athena at 84.79 degrees south in March 2025, which ended on its side; Chang'e 7 is aiming almost four degrees closer to the pole.
The payload manifest is unusually international for a Chinese mission: Chinese media count 21 science payloads, six of them contributed from abroad, including an Egypt-Bahrain hyperspectral imager, a Swiss Earth-radiation spectrometer, a Thai space-weather monitor, an Italian laser retroreflector array, a Russian dust-and-electric-field probe, and the ILOA Hawaii ILO-C astronomical telescope. The lander also carries a seismograph, a rare chance at new lunar seismic data half a century after Apollo's network went silent. Communications run through the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, launched in March 2024 and already supporting Chang'e 6.
The schedule, as of mid-July 2026: the probe arrived at Wenchang on April 9, 2026, the China Manned Space Agency confirmed a second-half-of-2026 window on April 10, and the Long March 5 (the type's twelfth flight) was delivered by sea on July 12-13. Chinese reports point to a late-August 2026 liftoff, followed by roughly 90 days in polar orbit to scout lighting and terrain before a landing attempt around the end of 2026. The mission is designed to operate for about eight years, doubling as an ILRS site survey.
04In pictures
Tap a photo to enlarge.
05Sources
- SpaceNews: Chang'e-7 arrives at spaceport (Apr 10, 2026)
- Xinhua: launch in second half of 2026 (Apr 10, 2026)
- China in Space: Long March 5 delivered to Wenchang (Jul 13, 2026)
- China in Space: mission and landing-site detail (Nov 17, 2025)
- SpaceNews: Chang'e-7 to target Shackleton crater (Jan 30, 2024)
- Planetary Society mission page
- CGTN: search for water ice above 85 S (Mar 9, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Chang'e 7 (payload list, mass, target coordinates)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences: Chang'e-7 seismograph (Jul 2025)
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