China moved a Long March 5 carrying the Chang’e-7 lunar probe to the launch area at Wenchang on Aug. 19. The launch window opens Aug. 24 at 08:00 Beijing time, runs four hours, and repeats daily through Aug. 31.

Chang’e-7 comprises four devices: an orbiter, a lander, a rover, and a hopping probe built to leap into the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar south pole—places where sunlight has not fallen in billions of years and water ice may therefore have survived. The lander targets the illuminated rim of Shackleton crater. The mission seeks to establish whether the site can support the International Lunar Research Station. China expects to land a crew on the Moon by around 2030.

Six of the instruments aboard come from outside China: a hyperspectral imager built jointly by Egypt and Bahrain, and payloads from Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand and the International Lunar Observatory Association. The ILRS partners now include Pakistan, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, Bahrain and Thailand.

The Wolf Amendment has barred NASA from bilateral cooperation with China since 2011, absent specific certification to Congress. While the U.S. has lost an opportunity for collaboration, China has spent those years recruiting international partners.