China launches three astronauts to its Tiangong-3 space station
China today successfully launched three astronauts to its Tiangong-3 space station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
The Shenzhou capsule should have already docked with the station, 3.5 hours after launch, though no confirmation is yet available. The overall mission is planned as a standard six-month mission, though depending on how the crew fare one will continue and attempt to complete a yearlong mission.
China’s state-run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters (using extremely toxic hypergolic fuels) crashed inside China. That press however made a big deal about how one of the astronauts comes from Hong Kong, no longer free and now under the full thumb of the communist government.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
60 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 60 to 52.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
China today successfully launched three astronauts to its Tiangong-3 space station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
The Shenzhou capsule should have already docked with the station, 3.5 hours after launch, though no confirmation is yet available. The overall mission is planned as a standard six-month mission, though depending on how the crew fare one will continue and attempt to complete a yearlong mission.
China’s state-run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters (using extremely toxic hypergolic fuels) crashed inside China. That press however made a big deal about how one of the astronauts comes from Hong Kong, no longer free and now under the full thumb of the communist government.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
60 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 60 to 52.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

