China Delays Chang'e-7 Moon Mission as Tropical Storm Threatens Launch Site

China's space agency has postponed the launch of the Chang'e-7 lunar probe, which had been scheduled to lift off this week from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island. The China Manned Space Agency said the "lunar probe does not meet launch conditions," and that its decision followed "the principle of prudence, reliability and absolute mission success," according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The delay was caused by Tropical Depression Narra, which formed in the Gulf of Tonkin just west of Hainan Island. Officials first pushed the launch back by a day, then concluded that the new target date was also unworkable. It is now unclear when Chang'e-7 will lift off; some reports suggest the mission could slip until 2027.

Chang'e-7 is designed to search the Moon's south pole for water ice, a resource both the United States and China hope to use for future lunar settlements. No mission has yet directly analyzed water ice on the Moon, though US satellites have remotely detected and estimated the size of ice deposits in shadowed craters. A Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines, sent a water-hunting drill to the south pole in 2025, but its lander tipped over and could not complete the task.

Katherine Joy, a professor at the University of Manchester who studies lunar and planetary science, told SpaceNews that Chang'e-7 "looks like an incredibly capable and ambitious mission with multiple scientific components on the orbiter, lander, rover and hopper," adding that there is potential for a large science return if it lands successfully near Shackleton crater.