China completed two launches today
China today completed two launches from two different spaceports, one a pseudo-commercial launch and the other a classified military payload.
First China launched the fifteenth set of satellites in the Guowang or SatNet internet-of-things satellite constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China. According to China’s state-run press, this brings the total number of Guowang satellites in orbit to about 110, fewer than I had previously estimated. The final plan calls for a constellation of 13,000.
The second launch took place on December 9th (in China), with a Long March 4B rocket lifting off from China’s Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China, placing a classified satellite into orbit.
With both launches, China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This is especially critical with the Long March 4B, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels that can dissolve your skin.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
161 SpaceX
79 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 161 to 131.
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 completed two launches from two different spaceports, one a pseudo-commercial launch and the other a classified military payload.
First China launched the fifteenth set of satellites in the Guowang or SatNet internet-of-things satellite constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China. According to China’s state-run press, this brings the total number of Guowang satellites in orbit to about 110, fewer than I had previously estimated. The final plan calls for a constellation of 13,000.
The second launch took place on December 9th (in China), with a Long March 4B rocket lifting off from China’s Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China, placing a classified satellite into orbit.
With both launches, China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This is especially critical with the Long March 4B, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels that can dissolve your skin.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
161 SpaceX
79 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 161 to 131.
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

