China is about to take a bold step in planetary defense. Later in 2025, the country will launch an experimental mission to deliberately collide a spacecraft with an asteroid, testing humanity’s ability to alter its trajectory and potentially prevent future catastrophes. This achievement would make China the second country in the world to perform this type of maneuver — with an important difference: monitoring the impact in real time.
The Chinese mission follows the success of NASA’s DART operation, which, on September 26, 2022, successfully deflected an asteroid for the first time in history: Dimorphos.
NASA’s project was part of the AIDA program, developed in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). Originally, the plan included the AIM orbiter to record the impact, but budget cuts in Europe left NASA alone in the endeavor. The American agency relied only on the Italian cubesat LICIACube to observe the feat.
ESA is now working on the Hera mission, which will arrive at the asteroid in December 2026 to collect detailed data on the effects of the DART impact.
The Chinese Plan: Two Spacecraft, One Target
China decided to follow a more ambitious path. Its mission — still without an official name — will send two probes:
- Impactor: responsible for colliding with the asteroid.
- Observer: equipped with high-precision sensors to analyze every detail of the collision.
The chosen target is 2020 PN1, an asteroid with an unstable orbit that passes tens of millions of kilometers from Earth. The observer spacecraft will arrive first to map the surface and collect detailed physical data. Shortly afterward, the impactor will collide with the object at high speed, while ground- and space-based telescopes monitor everything live.
The objective is modest but extremely challenging: to cause an orbital change of just 3 to 5 centimeters — enough to prove the effectiveness of the method.
The mission will require months of navigation and constant trajectory adjustments to hit an object only a few hundred meters in diameter. As Wu Weiren, project leader, explains, the challenge is comparable to:
“Hitting a fly tens of millions of kilometers away.”
Besides the difficulty of aiming, there is another uncertainty factor: the asteroid’s composition. Colliding with a solid rock is not the same as hitting a loosely packed pile of debris. The impact and the amount of material ejected depend directly on the density and internal structure of the celestial body.
First Step Toward a Complete Planetary Defense
This mission is only the first stage of a more ambitious plan. China aims to create a comprehensive system for detecting and protecting against space threats.
The country already has a ground-based surveillance network, which includes:
- The Purple Mountain Observatory;
- The China Compound Eye project, with radars capable of generating high-precision images from millions of kilometers away.
The goal is to complement this infrastructure with dedicated observation satellites and to build a rapid-response catalog for potential threats. In 2025, the Chinese government even launched a recruitment process for astrophysicists and international experts with the aim of creating its own planetary defense force.
A Demonstration of China’s Space Power
China is consolidating its position as a global power, combining scientific, technological, and military ambition. Its recent projects range from lunar exploration to audacious missions collecting samples from asteroids and Mars, reinforcing its reputation for innovation and technical capability. The asteroid deflection mission planned for 2025 marks a significant step in planetary defense, while the Tianwen-2 probe heads toward the quasi-satellite Kamoʻoalewa to bring unprecedented samples back to Earth before proceeding to a main-belt comet. At the same time, China is preparing the Tianwen-3 mission, which could return the first samples from Mars, placing the country at the forefront of international space exploration.
In September 2025, during the military parade in Beijing, China also showcased its growing technological capabilities in the defense sector. Highlights included new combat drones, such as a large unmanned stealth fighter prototype, as well as underwater drones, unmanned surface vehicles, and advanced reconnaissance systems. This demonstration underscores China’s strategy of integrating autonomous and advanced technologies across multiple domains, highlighting its ability to coordinate and monitor both in space and on the battlefield.
The parade also featured drone defense technologies, including high-energy laser weapons and hybrid missile-and-cannon platforms, demonstrating China’s commitment to counter emerging threats. The combination of space and military advancements reflects a broad strategic vision, where scientific exploration, planetary security, and technological innovation go hand in hand, positioning the country as a key player in the new era of space dominance and autonomous technologies.
With information from the South China Morning Post
