Overview
- Ground teams rolled the Chang'e‑7 flight stack and Long March 5 Y14 rocket to Wenchang on Aug. 19 and completed final integrated checks before propellant loading ahead of a launch window around Aug. 23–24, 2026.
- The Chang'e‑7 stack includes an orbiter, a lander, a rover, a propellant-powered hopping probe and a relay satellite that will be injected on a translunar trajectory and reach lunar orbit about five days after launch.
- Mission planners aim for a sub-100 meter precision touchdown near the Peak Near Shackleton on the lunar south pole rim to gain long sunlight and access to permanently shadowed craters.
- The hopper is designed to fly into dark crater floors, use a drill to retrieve soil down to roughly one metre, heat sealed samples and feed released gases to LUWA mass and laser spectrometers to measure water and isotope chemistry.
- Chang'e‑7 carries instruments from multiple countries and agencies and is billed by Chinese officials as a technical and science step toward an International Lunar Research Station and a possible crewed landing before 2030.