China and Venus

No Chinese spacecraft has yet been sent to Venus. Jonathan McDowell's catalogues of deep-space and heliocentric objects, both regenerated on 2 November 2026, list the Chinese payloads that have left Earth orbit: lunar craft (the Chang'e and Queqiao series among them), Chang'e-2, which went on to the asteroid Toutatis, the Chang'e-5 orbiter, now in solar orbit, Tianwen-1 at Mars and Tianwen-2, sent to a near-Earth asteroid. None has Venus as its destination. China's connection with Venus lives on paper and on the ground: an orbiter proposal that competed for funding in 2022 and was not taken forward, a sample return written into the national space science plan, a Jupiter mission whose published trajectories swing past Venus, statements by senior engineers, some research money, and radio telescopes that followed a European spacecraft behind the planet.

English reporting tends to blur the steps of Chinese planning language. Argumentation is studying and justifying a mission; project approval is the decision that turns a study into a funded project; implementation follows. China's 2024 national plan asks for five to eight science missions to be 'argued and approved' by 2027. For 2028 to 2035 it names five programmes to be 'argued and implemented', Venus atmosphere sample return among them, separately from about fifteen science satellite missions. No Venus item on this page has been reported as reaching project approval.

Talk of a Chinese Venus mission is older than any Chinese hardware beyond the Moon. On 16 September 2010, at the 2010 Space Engineering Breeding Forum, the academician Ye Peijian, adviser to the chief designer and chief commander of the Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter, sketched what Science and Technology Daily called the deep space timetable 'in his own eyes': Mars in 2013, Venus in 2015 and a crewed Moon landing in 2025. He proposed exploring Venus in parallel with Mars and listed a Venus orbiter among the goals for 2020. It was a personal proposal and was not adopted on that schedule; China's Mars mission Tianwen-1 left Earth on 23 July 2020.

Engineers kept the idea alive in print. In 2015 the National Defense Industry Press published Deep Space Exploration: Venus Exploration, a book by Hou Jianwen, Yang Guang, Feng Jianjun and colleagues. After chapters on the Soviet, American, European and Japanese missions, it devotes a chapter each to a Venus orbiter (with a section on a Chinese Venus concept), a mission floating in the atmosphere and a surface and roving mission, then sets out key technologies. The catalogue pages consulted do not give the authors' institution, and no agency is recorded adopting these concepts.

Official remarks grew more specific a decade later without becoming commitments. In March 2022 Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme, said that China was preparing to explore other planets 'for example Venus', adding that 'some missions have already been included in planning and argumentation'. At the Tiandu International Conference on Deep Space Exploration on 25 April 2023, Wu Yanhua, chief designer of the deep space exploration major project, said China 'will argue Venus and Mercury missions'. The same conference gave the Queqiao relay constellation a Venus role in two readings: Beijing Daily's account of Wu Yanhua's talk puts Mars and Venus coverage in its third phase, before 2050, while The Paper's account of Wu Weiren's lunar research station keynote has it built by 2040 to serve exploration of Mars, Venus and beyond.

Russia offered a partnership. In late February 2022, after new American sanctions, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin declared US participation in Venera-D impossible and said Russia would carry out the mission alone or bring China in; according to the TASS report carried by Naked Science on 27 February, he had instructed on 25 February that talks with Beijing begin, covering Venus and other deep space projects. No Chinese statement taking up the offer was found, nor any later joint Venus project.

VOICE, the Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer, was a proposal for a small Venus orbiter led by Dong Xiaolong, a researcher at the National Space Science Center (NSSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the CAS Aerospace Information Research Institute, the CAS Institute of Geochemistry and the CAS Innovation Academy for Microsatellites. It sat outside CNSA's Tianwen programme and grew out of concept studies funded by CAS's Strategic Priority Program on Space Science, which by November 2025 had launched eight science satellites, among them the Wukong dark matter explorer and the Kuafu-1 solar observatory.

On 9 July 2022 NSSC convened an expert consultation on the proposal's science goals and payload. Eight academicians and nearly twenty specialists took part, from universities including Peking University and National Central University in Taiwan, the national science foundation and CAS institutes. Their written conclusion called the science objectives clear and the design internationally competitive, and 'recommended approving and implementing the project as soon as possible, to seize the opportunity in international competition'. They also suggested broadening the search for signs of life, extending radio occultation and using orbit tracking to measure Venus's gravity. NSSC's report of the meeting gave the schedule as launch in 2026 and entry into Venus orbit in 2027.

Three instruments were proposed. An S-band polarimetric synthetic aperture radar would image the whole surface at about 30 m and selected areas at metre scale, which NSSC described as the first metre-resolution radar imaging of Venus. A microwave sounder looking both down and at the limb, from microwave to terahertz bands, would measure temperature and composition below and within the clouds, including a search for phosphine and ammonia. An ultraviolet to near-infrared imager would track the clouds, see the surface through near-infrared windows and watch for lightning. Paul Byrne of Washington University in St. Louis told the Planetary Society that none of Magellan, VERITAS or EnVision carries a fully polarimetric radar. The science themes were volcanism and thermal history, past water and plate motion, the runaway greenhouse and possible habitable conditions in the clouds (see Life on Venus).

Orbit and timeline come in two versions. The journal paper by Dong Xiaolong and ten co-authors, published online on 1 December 2022, gives a polar circular orbit of about 350 km. The Planetary Society's account of Dong's talk at the Europlanet Science Congress in September 2022 has launch in June 2026, arrival in Venus orbit in December 2026, aerobraking down to a circular 300 km orbit, science from April 2027 and a primary mission of three to four years; NSSC's 'Venus orbit in 2027' may count the start of science. Mass and launcher appear in one unofficial place, a Weibo post by the account China Spaceflight on 8 March 2023: about three months of aerobraking to 350 km, saving 450 kg of propellant, a total mass of 2,081 kg and a Long March 3B launch. No NSSC or CAS source found confirms those figures.

VOICE was one of 13 candidates for the third phase of the Strategic Priority Program, for implementation from 2025 to 2030. Three rivals shared its planetary and Earth science group, and a panel was to choose five to seven missions across all groups. In December 2022 the journal paper still described VOICE as 'taking part in selection'. Then the record goes quiet: the national plan of October 2024 lists the mission directions for its first stage, and none is at Venus. On 24 November 2025 NSSC said that in the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026 to 2030) it would carry out a science satellite programme 'including' Hongmeng, Kuafu-2, the Earth 2.0 exoplanet survey and the eXTP X-ray observatory. Earth 2.0 had been one of VOICE's fellow candidates in 2022; VOICE is not named. No Chinese source found says it was selected, rejected or cancelled, or why, although English Wikipedia files it under cancelled missions. June 2026, its launch month, passed without a Chinese launch toward Venus. This page records VOICE as proposed and not taken forward, with no stated reason.

The Venus goal still in the national plan is larger and further away. On 15 October 2024 the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China National Space Administration and the China Manned Space Engineering Office jointly released the National Medium and Long Term Development Plan for Space Science (2024 to 2050). Venus appears once in its text. In the second stage, 2028 to 2035, China is to operate its space station and 'argue and implement' science missions including crewed lunar exploration, the lunar research station, exploration of the edge of the solar system, exploration of the giant planet systems and Venus atmosphere sample return. The plan gives no launch year, no architecture and no implementing organisation. A year later, NSSC director Wang Chi's anniversary article of 16 October 2025 repeated the list with no Venus progress, and no source found up to 4 November 2026 names an implementing institute, chief designer or hardware.

Hou Zengqian, a CAS academician and chief scientist of China's planetary exploration programme and of the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return, spelled out the scientific case. Speaking in Wuhan on 17 November 2024, he proposed searching for life in three settings: the land of Mars, the atmosphere of Venus and the oceans of the icy moons. His roadmap, as Jimu News reported it, proposed a ground simulator of planetary habitable environments at the very start of the 2030s, a Venus atmosphere sample return in the early 2030s, the first Mars research station mission after the mid-2030s and a Neptune and Triton mission in the late 2030s. Jimu News reported his aim as providing a reference for the top-level design of planetary missions after 2030; each step is worded as a suggestion.

Two photographed slides show what the concept looks like. On 26 and 28 March 2025 Andrew Jones posted them on Bluesky; the roadmap carries the logo of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, and IEEE Spectrum described the material as a presentation shared on Chinese social media. The roadmap, headed 'Habitability and the search for extraterrestrial life: leading the future development of China's planetary exploration', and subtitled as a reference for follow-on planetary missions, shows Tianwen-3 launching around 2028 and Tianwen-4 around 2029, each marked 'approved by the central government'. After them, inside a dashed box and without that note, come a large ground facility simulating planetary habitable environments, to be built around 2030, 'sampling and return of potential microbes in the Venus atmosphere' launching around 2033, a Mars research station around 2038 and a Triton mission around 2039, the same order as Hou Zengqian's Wuhan roadmap, whose stated aim the subtitle echoes. The concept slide is titled 'Venus orbit, land and return integrated exploration', borrowing the formula of China's lunar programme, yet none of its ten numbered steps reaches the surface: launch, transfer, orbital observation, release, sampling the atmosphere at several points, floating in it, rendezvous in Venus orbit to hand over the sample, departure, cruise home and re-entry. It draws the sampling probe as a winged aircraft above the clouds and the return craft as an orbiter and returner stack, module names that McDowell's catalogue also records for Chang'e-5. It names the goals (possible traces of life, the evolution of the Venus environment, the unknown ultraviolet absorber in the clouds) and the main payloads, an atmosphere collection device and in situ gas analysers.

Readings of the date differ, and they measure different things. The national plan gives a phase, 2028 to 2035, and the verb pair 'argue and implement', which records no project approval. Hou Zengqian proposes 'the early 2030s'. The roadmap slide gives a launch 'around 2033'. EarthSky's May 2025 summary that China wants samples on Earth 'by 2033' reads the launch year as the return year. IEEE Spectrum set out the engineering problems in May 2025 with researchers from MIT, where Sara Seager's team studied a Venus atmosphere sample return for NASA in 2022; the magazine says NASA did not select the mission proposal (see Venus Life Finder): the clouds are mostly droplets of sulfuric acid, a craft inside them sees neither stars nor surface to fix its position, and an ascent rocket must climb out of unknown, possibly windy conditions to meet an orbiter. MIT's design called for 22 tons of spacecraft to return 10 grams of atmosphere, and no mission has yet brought material back from Venus.

Tianwen-4 is the Jupiter mission of CNSA's planetary exploration programme. At the International Astronautical Congress in Paris on 21 September 2022, Wang Qiong of CNSA's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center described it as a launch around 2030 on a Long March 5, carrying a main probe for Jupiter and a sub-probe for a Uranus flyby; the 2018 trajectory study and a 2025 roadmap slide both include an orbit around Callisto. Its status has firmed since. CNSA deputy administrator Bian Zhigang said, as People's Daily's overseas edition reported on 3 March 2025, that Tianwen-3 and Tianwen-4 were intensifying work on key technologies and refining their study and implementation plans; the roadmap slide marks Tianwen-4 as approved by the central government; Wang Chi's article of October 2025 lists it among missions being advanced; on China Space Day, 24 April 2026, Guan Feng, director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Center, said Tianwen-4 'is also within the plan' and will explore Jupiter and its moons; and at the 2026 congress in Antalya, as CNSA reported on 9 October, its chief engineer Li Guoping named 'Tianwen-4 Jupiter system exploration' among missions offering international partners room for payloads. None of these statements mentions Venus.

The Venus leg comes from engineers. At the 2022 Paris congress Wang Jilian of the China Academy of Space Technology said the probe would fly past Venus once and Earth twice and use the gravitational slingshot to reach Jupiter. Two published trajectories, optimised by separate teams for different launch dates, put numbers on it. Zhang Lei and four colleagues at the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, writing in Spacecraft Engineering in 2018, compared gravity-assist sequences for launches from 2029 to 2033 and chose Venus, Earth, Earth. Their optimum launches on 25 September 2029, passes Venus on 4 April 2030 at a flyby altitude of 6,011.35 km, passes Earth in February 2031 and May 2033, and reaches Jupiter on 23 December 2035. The 'Gan De' science study by Michel Blanc, Wang Chi and colleagues from Chinese and French institutes, shown at the European Geosciences Union meeting in May 2020, launches on 2 October 2029, passes Venus on 11 April 2030 at 12,716 km and arrives at Jupiter on 15 August 2035. Neither is a CNSA baseline, and no 2025 or 2026 official source confirms the flyby, its date or its distance.

If the flyby is kept, Chinese hardware will pass Venus about three years before the launch year the 2025 roadmap slide gives the sample return. A December 2023 paper by Zou Xin and colleagues at the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, in Chinese Space Science and Technology, proposes, in a preliminary concept for the mission, measuring the solar wind and magnetic field in interplanetary space from Venus to Earth to Jupiter and on to Uranus. Other spacecraft that used Venus this way are on the Venus flybys page.

Research money for Venus preparation has been offered at a small scale. On 14 September 2024 the National Natural Science Foundation of China published a special call, 'Lunar and deep space exploration science research (II)', with eleven research topics. Topic 9 compares atmospheric escape at Venus and Mars 'to provide a basis for the argumentation and planning of future Venus and Mars exploration science missions'. Topic 11 asks for a spaceborne microwave to terahertz radiometer design aimed at the habitable zone and biosignature gases of the Venus clouds and at Jupiter, 'to provide technical support for China's future Venus and Jupiter exploration'. VOICE proposed the same kind of instrument; the call does not mention it. The call planned about eight medium projects across all eleven topics, averaging no more than 3 million yuan (about €400,000) in direct costs each and running from 2025 to 2028; the funded teams were not identified.

Chinese researchers have also argued in print that the country should move. Han Lin and colleagues at the CAS Institutes of Science and Development, reviewing foreign Venus programmes in 2024, concluded that China should seize the moment and start deploying Venus missions as soon as possible. Zhang Xiwen and Li Qi of the Institute of Geophysics of the China Earthquake Administration, in a 2025 review, proposed a phased national strategy: orbiters with small descent probes within ten years, aerial platforms around 2040, and landing, roving and a study of sample return from 2040 to 2050, calling the decade to 2030 the key period for China to begin. Both are academic recommendations, and the second misdescribes some foreign missions (it calls VERITAS a surface probe), so it is cited here for its proposal alone.

Ground antennas in China have already helped sound Venus's atmosphere through someone else's spacecraft. Radio telescopes of CAS's Shanghai and Xinjiang observatories took part in the PRIDE sessions that recorded the carrier signal of ESA's Venus Express as it passed behind Venus. The 2019 analysis in Astronomy and Astrophysics lists Sheshan (25 m), Nanshan near Urumqi (25 m) and the 65 m Tianma near Shanghai among the stations, and reports that in the session of 23 March 2014 Tianma held the signal through a complete occultation, including the time when the planet's disk fully hid the spacecraft, because the thick atmosphere bent the signal so strongly.

What would change this page is any of three announcements: project approval for the Venus sample return, or the naming of its institute and chief designer; an official Tianwen-4 trajectory, which would settle whether the April 2030 flyby is in the flight plan; and a word from CAS on what happened to VOICE. None had appeared by 4 November 2026 in CNSA's news index (latest item 26 October), NSSC's news pages or McDowell's catalogues of 2 November.