According to CCTV News, China’s Chang’e-7 lunar probe is scheduled to launch in 2026, targeting the South Pole-Aitken Basin area above 85 degrees south latitude on the Moon. China is poised to become the first country in the world to find water ice on the lunar surface.
The lunar south pole is home to permanently shadowed craters, where scientists believe significant reserves of water ice may be preserved. The Chang’e-7 mission will carry an innovative hopper spacecraft, designed to conduct the first-ever close-range investigation of these shadowed depressions on the Moon.