China on Thursday launched a space probe on the nation's first mission to retrieve samples from an asteroid and bring them home for research.

A Long March-3B rocket carrying the Tianwen-2 probe blasted off from the Xichang launch site in southwestern Sichuan province at 1.31am.

About 18 minutes later, the probe was sent into a transfer orbit the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

"Shan Zhongde, head of the China National Space Administration, stated that the Tianwen-2 mission represents a significant step in China's new journey of interplanetary exploration," Xinhua News Agency reported.

Discovered by scientists in Hawaii in 2016, the asteroid is roughly 40 to 100 metres in diameter.

It is a "living fossil" consisting of ancient materials that can help scientists understand how the early solar system formed.

The comet, meanwhile, orbits between Mars and Jupiter and is alluring to researchers because it exhibits some features more commonly associated with asteroids. (Xinhua, AFP)