Press Release
UPDATE! Launch of Long March 5 Y14 carrying Chang’e 7
delayed by a month
23 August 2026 - The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) announce the rescheduling of CNSA’s Long March 5 Y14 rocket carrying CE-7 MATCH, Thailand’s first payload to orbit the Moon by a month due to Typhoon Narra, according to the CNSA official.
Dr. Wiphu Rujopakarn, NARIT’s executive Director remarks, “Space missions come with high levels of difficulties and expectations. It is vitally important that all the parameters line up and give it the most favourable conditions. Though delays are not ideal, they are important to give the mission the best opportunities.”
Currently, Long March 5 Y14 is located at Wenchang Space Launch Site located in Wenchang on the island of Hainan, China. Chang’e 7 lunar probe along with Thailand’s CE-7 MATCH payload designed and developed by Thai scientists and engineers is still situated safely atop the rocket and ready for its mission. The delay currently does not pose any threat to the success of CE-7 MATCH mission.
According to the CNSA, the delay is due to the Typhoon Narra developing in the South China sea. Due to the target landing site on the Lunar south pole, this makes for a very particular launch window in which the Sun lined up just right for the lunar crater. A delay by a few days would mean postponing to the next launch window in a month at the earliest.
Once deployed on lunar orbit, CE-7 MATCH will measure cosmic rays far from the magnetic influence of Earth and would mark Thailand’s first step towards deep space exploration outside Earth’s sphere of influence. CE-7 MATCH is the first payload designed and made entirely by Thai scientists and engineers. This delay means the country must yet wait another month to celebrate this national achievement.
In the meantime, NARIT continues on with its public awareness campaign on CE-7 MATCH including the development of space instruments, technology involved, pre-launch preparations, the science behind the mission, and story behind this difficult mission. The Thai public may participate via “Thailand CE-7 Moonshot Challenge”, learning about the CE-7 MATCH mission via short clips and online quizzes.
The live broadcast of the launch will be announced at a later date on NARIT official social media, once the new launch date has been confirmed by the CNSA.
CE-7 MATCH (Moon-Aiming Thai-Chinese Hodoscope) is a scientific instrument that was developed by NARIT and Mahidol University under the Thai-Chinese collaboration under the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The mission was selected to be among the 7 international scientific payloads aboard the Chang’e 7 mission to the Moon. CE-7 MATCH has mission to study high energy cosmic rays and understand the relationship between the Sun Earth and Moon system to understand the origin of cosmic rays, including Solar Energetic Particles (SEP), Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), Jovian Electrons, and particles emitted back from interaction of cosmic rays with lunar surface, also known as Lunar Albedo. This mission will be vital to understand the kind of radiation that would impact human long-term survivability in space and on the lunar surface.
