&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "China's water hunting space mission to moon's south pole postponed")
China’s robotic Chang’e-7 mission, designed to scour the moon’s south pole for water ice cannot take place during the planned window this year, said China Manned Space Engineering Office in a statement shared by Chinese state media. The highly anticipated launch was expected Sunday evening, or Monday morning Beijing time from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan.
The exact cause for the delay was not clear, however, the state-run Xinhua news agency said that the, “lunar probe does not meet launch conditions,” and the “assessment was conducted following the principle of prudence, reliability and absolute mission success.”
China has also not given the next date for the fresh launch as it is highly tight-lipped about its space activities. For instance, China announces who's flying on its crewed missions just one day before liftoff.
Some online reports suggest that Chang'e 7 could lift off as soon as September, while others — including today's Xinua story — think it will not happen before 2027.
The United States and China are jostling to build settlements on the moon’s south pole, where water is said to exist in frozen abundance inside shadowy craters.
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No mission has so far directly analyzed water on the moon. Though the US has detected and begun estimating the size of water ice stores it is yet to successfully send a probe to drill for the resource.
Chang'e 7 consists of an orbiter and a lander, which will likely touch down on the rim of Shackleton Crater, near the moon's south pole which is said to harbour lots of water ice on craters that have remained away from sunlight for billions of years.
