Countdown

Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Launch

Thursday, November 30, 2028 · 756 days away

GlobalSpaceexpected

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755

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Event overview

China's Tianwen-3 dual-launch Mars sample-return mission, targeting a late-2028 window from Wenchang on two Long March 5 rockets — on track to return the first Martian samples to Earth around 2031, ahead of NASA-ESA's reorganised Mars Sample Return programme.

Date: 2028-11-30
Country / jurisdiction: China
Region: Global
Category: Space
Status: expected

Confirmation checklist

Before you act on this countdown

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Date signal

This is an expected date. Keep watching the source before making firm plans.

Local time

No reliable start time is attached yet, so this page stays date-first instead of implying midnight.

Calendar action

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Next useful path

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Source trail

Source trail for Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Launch

Verify source

Primary source

cnsa.gov.cn

Last reviewed

2026-04-30

Tracker status

expected

Date precision

Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans.

Schema posture

Precise Event startDate schema is withheld so the page does not overstate an expected or windowed date.

This is an expected date. Use reminders and monitoring, but verify the source before making travel, purchase, publication, or staffing decisions.

Primary citation

The current date signal points to cnsa.gov.cn. The source URL is shown visibly on the page so readers can verify late changes instead of relying only on the timer.

Freshness and review

Source policy was reviewed on 2026-04-30. Live countdown values are render-time snapshots; editorial source fields update when the tracked event dataset changes.

Operational detail

The record does not carry a reliable public start time yet, so the page avoids implying a midnight or all-day start.

Weak-date handling

The page stays crawlable and useful, but confidence copy and schema posture are deliberately weaker than a confirmed event page.

What this countdown tracks

Launch of Tianwen-3 (天问三号), the China National Space Administration's dual-launch Mars sample-return mission, targeting a late-2028 window — provisionally end of November 2028 — from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. If the mission holds schedule it will return the first ever Martian samples to Earth, around 2031, several years ahead of the reorganised NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return programme.

About the mission

Tianwen-3 splits the campaign across two Long March 5 rockets launched in close succession. One vehicle carries the lander/ascent stack — a sampler, a Mars-Ascent Vehicle and an orbiter — and the other carries the orbiter/Earth-return vehicle. The lander touches down in a southern-hemisphere mid-latitude site selected for biosignature potential, scoops 500–1,000 grams of regolith and atmospheric gas, and the ascent vehicle lifts the samples to Mars orbit. There they rendezvous with the return spacecraft for the cruise back to Earth.

CNSA published the mission baseline at the 2024 Deep Space Exploration Conference in Hefei. Site selection candidates include Chryse Planitia and Utopia Planitia, the latter near the still-operational Zhurong rover landing zone.

Significance

First Mars sample return. No agency has yet returned material from Mars; the Apollo lunar samples remain the only extraterrestrial planetary samples in long-term curation.
Geopolitical inflection. A successful Tianwen-3 would mark China's clear lead on a marquee deep-space milestone the United States has pursued since the 1970s.
Astrobiology. Sealed, contamination-controlled return of Martian regolith would be a generational dataset for biosignature search.
Schedule pressure on NASA. The current NASA-ESA MSR architecture is targeted no earlier than 2035 after a 2024 cost-and-schedule reset.

Past Mars campaigns

Tianwen-1 (2020 launch / 2021 arrival) — orbiter, Zhurong rover and lander.
Tianwen-2 (2025 launch) — sample return from near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa.
Mars 2020 / Perseverance (NASA, 2020) — caching tubes for an eventual MSR pickup.
ExoMars Rosalind Franklin (ESA-NASA, slipped to 2028) — astrobiology rover.

How to follow

CNSA publishes mission updates via the China Aerospace News Agency (CANA), Xinhua and the official CNSA portal. NASA Spaceflight, SpaceNews, the Planetary Society and Andrew Jones at SpaceNews provide the most reliable English-language coverage. Launch streams typically appear on CCTV-13 and the CNSA YouTube mirror.

Pair with Mars opposition 2027, Artemis III launch, and the Perseid storm of August 2028 — the most distinctive deep-space and night-sky events of the decade.

FAQ

When does Tianwen-3 launch? Late 2028 — provisional end-November launch window from Wenchang. When do samples arrive? Around 2031. How much sample mass? 500–1,000 grams, sealed at Mars. Is this before NASA's MSR? Yes — by an estimated 4+ years.

Date confidence

Expected date

Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Launch has an expected date signal, but the source has not locked every detail. Treat the countdown as a monitoring aid and verify the linked source before making time-sensitive plans.

Source

https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/index.html

Source host: cnsa.gov.cn
Date precision: Expected single-date signal; verify before acting
Schema posture: Precise Event startDate withheld because the record is expected or windowed
Planning boundary: Use as a monitoring aid until the source trail is stronger

Structured data posture

This page does not emit a precise Event startDate because the tracked record is expected or windowed. The countdown stays useful for monitoring, while schema avoids making a stronger claim than the source supports.

Countdown evidence

Retention class

Expected-date monitoring countdown

Evidence score

4/10 record signals

City-page readiness

Held to date-first

Evidence score4/10 signals present: primary source URL; tracked date; place context; related event cluster
Date and schemaSchema-limited watchlist date: Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans. Precise Event startDate schema is withheld so the page does not overstate an expected or windowed date.
Local-time readinessDate-first only: The record is not used as a city-local event page until it has a reliable time, timezone, and non-windowed date.
Record completeness1 concrete fields: country China
Weak-field watchlist4 fields to improve: verified public start time; venue; manual official-source note; historical sequence
Source freshnesscnsa.gov.cn; reviewed 2026-04-30: Related crawl path: SpaceX Starship Mars Cargo Mission, Hanukkah 2028, Cyberpunk 2 (Project Orion), Mass Effect 5.

Planning notes

How to use this Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Launch countdown

Countdown pages are useful when they are honest about what is known, what is merely expected, and what still needs checking. This page keeps the live timer separate from the source confidence and structured-data posture.

Date confidence

This record uses an expected single-date signal for Thursday, November 30, 2028; verify cnsa.gov.cn before committing travel, spend, publication, or launch planning. The page keeps Event structured data cautious because the date is expected or windowed.

What could change

Watch for date shifts, venue or access updates, broadcast windows, registration rules, and source corrections. The current precision is: Expected single-date signal; useful for monitoring, but not strong enough for irreversible plans..

Local-time usefulness

No reliable source start time is attached yet, so the page stays date-first and avoids implying a midnight start. 756 days remain at render time.

Category context

Tianwen-3 Mars Sample-Return Launch sits in Space with country China. Related countdown links should help users compare similar events, not create unverified event-city pages.

Catalog-specific details

No creator, platform, league, brand, fixture, family, or alternate-name detail is attached to this event record.

Series and expectation notes

No series history, end date, or what-to-expect field is attached.

Priority note

This page is kept specific through source confidence, category, region, date precision, and update notes rather than generic countdown filler.

Verification trail

source URL https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/index.html. trust checks: Source host: cnsa.gov.cn, Date precision: Expected single-date signal; verify before acting, Schema posture: Precise Event startDate withheld because the record is expected or windowed, and Planning boundary: Use as a monitoring aid until the source trail is stronger. no manual editorial context is attached yet.

Record completeness

present fields: country China. missing or weak fields: verified public start time, venue, manual official-source note, and historical sequence

Related crawl path

Nearby retained events: SpaceX Starship Mars Cargo Mission, Hanukkah 2028, Cyberpunk 2 (Project Orion), Mass Effect 5, and Squid Game: America. These links should support topical discovery without creating unverified event-city pages.

Review boundary: this page tracks the public date signal, source link, category, region, and calendar posture. It does not replace official ticketing, exchange, broadcaster, organizer, court, regulator, or government notices.

Source reviewed Apr 30, 2026. The countdown record is intentionally labeled as scheduled or expected; use the source link and any range notes before treating the date as final.

Live values rendered at Nov 5, 7:06 PM UTC.

Related planning pages

Countdown hubAll currently tracked countdowns.Space countdownsRelated events in this category.2028 countdownsEvents tracked for the same calendar year.SourcesHow we cite and review date sources.Speculative datesHow expected and windowed dates are labeled.

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