China signals new target for 2027 asteroid deflection test
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - China has identified a new target near-Earth asteroid for its first planetary defense kinetic test mission, which is scheduled to launch in December 2027.
Long Lehao, a senior official with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and a chief designer of China's Long March rocket series, presented a slide at the 2026 Commercial Aerospace Industry Development Conference in Shenzhen, south China, indicating that the redirect test mission would target asteroid 2016 WP8. While not an official declaration, it provides a rare and likely authoritative update consistent with earlier mission profiles.
2016 WP8 is a small Aten-class asteroid, meaning it crosses Earth's orbit but spends most of its orbit inside that of the Earth's. The planetary defense test and verification mission will launch on a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center and carry separate impactor and observer spacecraft.
According to a previously released mission profile, the observer spacecraft will embark on a flyby of Venus on the way to 2016 WP8 ahead of rendezvous in 2029, allowing a few months of observations. The kinetic impactor, initially remaining in orbit around the Earth, would then impact 2016 WP8 later in 2029, with the observer spacecraft making follow-up assessments of the impact, including how the impact may have altered the asteroid's orbit.
Veteran space official Long Lehao presented some interesting slides at a conference in Shenzhen. This states China's 1st planetary defence test mission is due to launch Dec. 2027 on a CZ-3B, with separate impactor & observer spacecraft. Targeting "2016 WP8" (which may not exist) pic.twitter.com/WqOJSTfFfp
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China announced plans for its first planetary defense mission in 2022. Principles for selecting a target asteroid included avoiding objects considered a risk before or after an impact, having an orbital inclination less than five degrees, favorable brightness for viewing and multiple observation opportunities, potential science value, and launch windows between 2025-2027.
The initial target was 2020 PN1, a small, Apollo asteroid, another class of Earth-crossing asteroids that are mostly outside the orbit of the Earth, with launch around 2026. A revised mission profile identified 2019 VL5, a 30-meter-diameter, Aten asteroid, scheduled for a 2025 launch. The mission was then rescheduled for 2027, targeting 2015 XF261, another small Aten-class asteroid, according to a presentation at the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) 45th Scientific Assembly in South Korea in 2024.
Chinese officials previously stated they have made breakthroughs on multiple related key technologies, including high-speed impact and deflection modeling simulations. It is also soliciting suggestions for the name of the mission from the public through the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL).
China's latest Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), the outline of which was approved in Beijing last week, includes a commitment to conducting the country's first planetary defense test and verification mission along with a series of plans for commercial space, reusable rockets, constellations and deep space.
Scientists are also proposing space-based observatories for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects to improve early warning systems, including spacecraft which could be stationed at orbits including the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 and Venus-like orbits.
The new target for China's planetary defense test mission is likely smaller than Dimorphos, the satellite of near-Earth asteroid Didymos which NASA targeted and impacted with its DART mission in 2022. ESA's Hera spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with Dimorphos in November this year for follow-up observations of the asteroid and the effects of the DART impact. China's mission aims to cover both the impact and observation segments from DART and Hera with a single launch.
China's Tianwen-2 near-Earth asteroid sample return mission is meanwhile closing in on asteroid Kamo'oalewa and expected to rendezvous with the object in the coming months.
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