China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has successfully rendezvoused with the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa, marking the nation’s first asteroid sample return mission. After 400 days of flight and traversing one billion kilometers, the probe approached within 20 kilometers of the quasi-moon on 4 July 2026. Launched from Xichang in late May 2025 by CNSA, the mission now initiates remote sensing to map surface topography and identify sampling sites. The spacecraft will collect a small material volume before departing in April 2027, returning samples to Earth via a November 2027 capsule landing. This achievement positions China as the third country globally to retrieve asteroid samples, following the US and Japan, and enables subsequent gravity-assist transit to main-belt comet 311P in 2035.