China abruptly delays ambitious Chang’e-7 mission to find water ice on moon

China said on Sunday it was postponing its planned ambitious Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which was set to carry out explorations including searching for water ice on the moon. The Chang’e-7 spacecraft was originally set to lift off in the coming days from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on China’s southern Hainan island. The mission does not meet the launch conditions, said the China Manned Space Agency in a brief statement, and “cannot take place during the planned window this year”. The decision was made following a “comprehensive assessmen”, the agency added, and was based on the principles of “prudence, reliability and absolute mission success”. It did not further elaborate on the reasons behind the decision. China prepares for future Moon mission with new crew launch To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 01:58 Preparations have been carried out at the Wenchang launch site for the Chang’e-7 mission over the past weeks, the seventh in the Chang’e moo...