China's Manned Space Agency scrubbed Sunday's Long March 5 and said Chang'e 7 now waits until at least 2027 after weather tied to Typhoon Narra. NASA set the Roman Space Telescope for 30 August on a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy.
China's Manned Space Agency scrubbed the Long March 5 launch set for Sunday evening and said the Chang'e 7 probe will now wait until at least 2027. Scientific American reports that poor weather tied to Typhoon Narra was likely a factor, and the agency said the decision followed an extensive review and reflected the need for absolute safety. The moon-water mission now waits until 2027.[1]
Chang'e 7 was meant to be the first spacecraft to land beside the lunar south pole, in the roughly 21 kilometre Shackleton Crater, and to search there for frozen water. Scientific American writes that access to usable water shapes both China's plan to start building the International Lunar Research Station in 2031 and NASA's Artemis IV landing, tentatively set for early 2028. The pit beside the south pole sits on the water timetable of both programmes.[1]
NASA will send the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, 30 August, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Live coverage begins at 6:20 a.m. EDT. The observatory pairs sharp infrared optics with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's and is to work from the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point. Roman is built to investigate dark energy and dark matter, to characterise exoplanets, and to map billions of galaxies, with a five-year primary lifetime and a ten-year operational goal.[2]
