Tag: China
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Do these Buddhist gods hint at the purpose of China’s super-secret satellites?
Mission patches are a decades-old tradition in spaceflight. They can range from the figurative to the abstract, prompting valuable insights or feeding confusion. Some are just plain weird. Ars published a story a few months ago on spaceflight patches from NASA, SpaceX, Russia, and the NRO, the US government’s spy satellite agency, which is responsible for…
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Launch Roundup: Orbital launches from five countries planned
On the heels of a busy April, activity is ramping up for May with launches from five countries and six launch sites on three continents this week. A new orbital launch site in Australia was scheduled to make its debut, but was delayed due to an issue with the launch vehicle, while launches from sites…
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Rocket Report: The pitfalls of rideshare; China launches next Tiangong crew
Welcome to Edition 7.41 of the Rocket Report! NASA and its contractors at Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue building a new mobile launch tower for the Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, a taller, upgraded version of the SLS rocket being used for the agency’s initial Artemis lunar missions. Workers stacked another segment of…
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Rocket Report: The pitfalls of rideshare; China launches next Tiangong crew
Welcome to Edition 7.41 of the Rocket Report! NASA and its contractors at Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue building a new mobile launch tower for the Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, a taller, upgraded version of the SLS rocket being used for the agency’s initial Artemis lunar missions. Workers stacked another segment of…
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China launches three taikonauts to Tiangong, commercial sector continues to expand
China has launched its ninth crewed mission to the Tiangong space station, coinciding with the 55th anniversary of the launch of Dongfanghong-1, the country’s first satellite. Meanwhile, China has achieved the world’s first network of satellites using a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) in Earth-Moon space, with its DRO-B satellite completing a final manoeuver this month.…
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As NASA faces cuts, China reveals ambitious plans for planetary exploration
China created a new entity called the “Deep Space Exploration Laboratory” three years ago to strengthen the country’s approach to exploring the Solar System. Located in eastern China, not far from Shanghai, the new laboratory represented a partnership between China’s national space agency and a local public college, the University of Science and Technology of…
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Launch Roundup: Electron, Falcon 9, and Ceres-1 launches flying this week
The busy launch manifests of recent weeks are continuing, with Falcon 9, Electron, and Chinese rocket launches having taken place this week. SpaceX launched Starlink 12-25 and NROL-57 along with NROL-69, while Starlink 11-7 moved into next week. Rocket Lab’s Electron successfully launched from New Zealand on the heels of last week’s “The Lightning God…
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Rocket Report: ULA confirms cause of booster anomaly; Crew-10 launch on tap
Welcome to Edition 7.35 of the Rocket Report! SpaceX’s steamroller is still rolling, but for the first time in many years, it doesn’t seem like it’s rolling downhill. After a three-year run of perfect performance—with no launch failures or any other serious malfunctions—SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has suffered a handful of issues in recent months.…
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Chang Zheng 8A launches as Chinese spaceport expansions begin
Chinese spaceflight activities have been on pause in recent weeks due to the annual Spring Festival and New Lunar Year celebrations. Nonetheless, February saw the maiden launch of the Chang Zheng 8A (CZ-8A) rocket, which debuted new engines and other technologies to expand China’s spaceflight capabilities. Construction is underway to extend infrastructure at the Hainan…
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Launch Roundup: Starship, Ariane 6 and telescope missions delayed, lunar lander flies
Several significant missions were scheduled for this week, including the third lunar lander to launch in just over a month. The Intuitive Machines-2 (IM-2) mission will explore and analyze the Moon’s subsurface, testing new technologies and paving the way for future lunar missions. NASA is also set to launch its SPHEREx observatory, which will map…