--- title: China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus description: The mission will include two spacecraft, one of which will targeted for Jupiter and would enter orbit around the Jovian moon Callisto. canonical: https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-09-23T20:47:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:48:20.815Z article:section: Science og:title: China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus og:description: Beijing announces plans for an ambitious dual mission in 2030 og:url: https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa19297a10fcbb3/698a35bc09208fee35419950/jupiter-china-spacecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Jupiter's Moons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus twitter:description: Beijing announces plans for an ambitious dual mission in 2030 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa19297a10fcbb3/698a35bc09208fee35419950/jupiter-china-spacecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=99803359-86a2-4481-95ab-c8dbae80c33d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Sep 23, 2022 8:47 PM UTC  Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, with two of its satellites, Io on the left (above Jupiter's Great Red Spot) and Europa on the right, March 1979\. The image was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, with two of its satellites, Io on the left (above Jupiter's Great Red Spot) and Europa on the right, March 1979\. The image was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive—Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Sep 23, 2022 8:47 PM UTC It was 2,300 years ago that the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan wrote the poem “Tianwen,” or “Heavenly Questions.” It is only now that China’s Tianwen spacecraft have begun flying missions designed to come up with some heavenly answers. And as [Space.com reports](https://www.space.com/china-probes-jupiter-uranus-same-launch), those missions are becoming increasingly ambitious. In 2020, the [Tianwen 1](https://www.space.com/china-mars-rover-landing-success-tianwen-1-zhurong) spacecraft was launched to Mars, carrying the Zhurong rover, which successfully landed on the surface of the Red Planet in May 2021\. Already, China has announced plans to launch Tianwen 2 on a sample return mission to the near-Earth asteroid [Kamo’oalewa](https://www.space.com/near-earth-space-rock-made-of-moon-material) in 2025, and to follow that with Tianwen 3, flying its own sample return mission to Mars in 2028. But just this week, at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, China went even further, unveiling plans for an ambitious dual-planet mission for Tianwen 4 as early as 2030\. The mission would include two spacecraft, the larger of which would be targeted for Jupiter and would enter orbit around the Jovian moon Callisto. A second, smaller spacecraft, would then fly onto Uranus. [Nine NASA spacecraft](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/slideshow/exploring-jupiter/#:~:text=Nine%20spacecraft%20have%20visited%20Jupiter,and%20what%20they've%20discovered.) have either flown by or orbited Jupiter, though none has ever orbited any of its moons. Only one spacecraft, NASA’s [Voyager 2](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-2/in-depth/), has ever reconnoitered Uranus, flying by the planet in 1986\. Both Chinese spacecraft could also make an asteroid flyby on their way to the outer solar system, though that possibility has yet to be decided upon. “The scientific goals are still under consideration,” Wang Qiong of the China National Space Administration told Space.com. Beijing came to the space game late—especially compared to the U.S. and the old Soviet Union. But it is decidedly making up for that lost time now. _This story originally appeared in TIME Space, our weekly newsletter covering all things space._ [_You can sign up here._](https://time.com/newsletters/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/"},"headline":"China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus","datePublished":"2022-09-23T20:47:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:48:20.815Z","description":"Beijing announces plans for an ambitious dual mission in 2030","url":"https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/","keywords":["Space","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa19297a10fcbb3/698a35bc09208fee35419950/jupiter-china-spacecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdfa19297a10fcbb3/698a35bc09208fee35419950/jupiter-china-spacecraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jupiter's Moons","caption":"Jupiter's Moons","creditText":"Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6216133/china-aims-for-jupiter-and-uranus/","name":"China Unveils Plans to Send Spacecraft to Jupiter and Uranus"}}]}] ```