Tag: China
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China’s Astronstone Secures $14 Million to Develop Stainless Steel Reusable Rocket Modeled on SpaceX Starship
Astronstone, one of China’s newest commercial space startups, announced it has raised over 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) in early-stage funding to develop a stainless steel, reusable rocket inspired by SpaceX’s Starship system. Founded in mid-2024, Astronstone is developing its AS-1 launch vehicle, a 70-meter tall, 4.2-meter diameter rocket powered by a customized version of…
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China’s Sepoch Completes Vertical Liftoff and Splashdown Test for Reusable Rocket
Chinese commercial rocket firm Sepoch has successfully conducted a vertical takeoff and soft splashdown test of its Yuanxingzhe-1 (YXZ-1), a key milestone ahead of a potential orbital launch of the reusable vehicle later this year. The verification rocket lifted off from an elevated platform at the Haiyang spaceport in Shandong province at 4:40 p.m. Eastern…
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China Launches Tianwen-2 Asteroid and Comet Mission to Expand Planetary Science and Defense Capabilities
China launched its second planetary exploration mission last week, sending the Tianwen-2 spacecraft to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid and later study a main belt comet, as Beijing expands its role in international deep-space science and planetary defense efforts. The mission lifted off on a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch…
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China Accelerates AI Push with Ground and Space-Based Infrastructure, U.S. Struggles to Counter
China is advancing a state-driven campaign to dominate global artificial intelligence through an expanding network of domestic data centers and an emerging space-based computing architecture, according to a new report. The report, titled “China’s AI Infrastructure Surge,” was published by the Special Competitive Studies Project and Strider Technologies. It describes how Beijing is coordinating with…
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China extends its reach into the Solar System with launch of asteroid mission
A Chinese spacecraft built to collect specimens from an unexplored asteroid and return them to Earth successfully launched Wednesday from a military-run spaceport in the country’s mountainous interior. Liftoff aboard a Long March 3B rocket at 1:31 pm EDT (17:31 UTC) from the Xichang launch base kicked off the second mission in a series of…
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Launch Roundup: Chinese asteroid mission, and Falcon 9 launch
This week, China launched a near-Earth asteroid sample return mission amongst several other missions. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab has postponed the launch its Electron rocket from New Zealand until June 3 for additional checks and bad weather. Coming off the launch of Starship’s ninth flight test on Tuesday, SpaceX launched several Starlink missions. The company also…
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China’s MinoSpace Secures $111 Million Contract for Sichuan Satellite Constellation
Chinese commercial satellite manufacturer MinoSpace has won a contract valued at 804 million yuan ($111 million) to construct a remote sensing satellite constellation for Sichuan Province, marking a significant step in the country’s growing use of private firms in national space infrastructure projects. The deal, announced May 18 by the National Public Resources Trading Platform…
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Landspace Launches Six Satellites with Methane-Fueled Zhuque-2E Rocket in Fifth Mission
Chinese private launch firm Landspace successfully placed six satellites into orbit on May 17, marking the fifth flight of its methane-fueled Zhuque-2 rocket and continuing a sharp uptick in China’s orbital activity this year. The Zhuque-2E lifted off at 12:12 a.m. Eastern (0412 UTC) from a dedicated commercial pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center…
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China Boosts Space Activity with Long March 7A and Ceres-1 Sea Launches
China has intensified its space launch schedule with two recent missions, deploying a Long March 7A rocket to geosynchronous orbit and a Ceres-1 solid rocket from a sea platform into low Earth orbit, marking the country’s 28th and 29th orbital launch attempts this year. A Long March 7A lifted off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch…
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Launch Roundup: Starship Flight 9; SpaceX starts new Starlink shell; China, Russia also launch
This Launch Roundup has been extended to include the launch of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 on Tuesday/Wednesday. SpaceX was expected to begin building a new shell for its Starlink constellation last week, launching from Vandenberg to a polar orbit. This mission was postponed until Tuesday and now falls into the scope of this Roundup. Two…