China called off its ice-hunting Moon shot a day before launch
China called off its most ambitious Moon mission the day before it was due to fly.
The announcement runs to a single sentence. Chang’e 7 does not meet the conditions for launch, the China Manned Space Agency said on Sunday. It cannot go ahead in this year’s scheduled window.
It gave no reason.
What the statement does say
The decision followed a comprehensive assessment, the agency wrote, made in accordance with a principle of proceeding prudently and reliably.
The phrase ends on a Chinese idiom. Outlets have rendered it as both absolute success and absolute safety. It means leaving no room for failure.
That is the whole notice.
What was sitting on the rocket
Chang’e 7 is four spacecraft. An orbiter, a lander, a wheeled rover and a small hopper.
They were stacked on a Long March 5 at the Wenchang launch site, on Hainan island in the South...
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