China launches classified payload into orbit
China early today successfully placed a classified satellite into orbit, its Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport in southern China.
Video of the launch can be seen here.
China’s state-run press provided no information about the satellite or payload.

China’s communists to its citizens “Nice business you got here.
Shame if something happened to it.”
In related news, that state-run press made official what had been rumored in late October, that the government has now formed a special agency to supervise the pseudo-companies in its faux commercial rocket industry.
In other words, the government has decided the little freedom it gave these pseudo-companies was too much. It is now going to coordinate their efforts from above, and do so much more tightly. I suspect this decision was prompted by the success of some of these companies — taking advantage of that small measure of freedom. The government’s has gotten some new rockets and satellite constellations. Now it can step in and take over, like the mobsters communist governments are.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
155 SpaceX
74 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 155 to 125.
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 early today successfully placed a classified satellite into orbit, its Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport in southern China.
Video of the launch can be seen here.
China’s state-run press provided no information about the satellite or payload.

China’s communists to its citizens “Nice business you got here.
Shame if something happened to it.”
In related news, that state-run press made official what had been rumored in late October, that the government has now formed a special agency to supervise the pseudo-companies in its faux commercial rocket industry.
In other words, the government has decided the little freedom it gave these pseudo-companies was too much. It is now going to coordinate their efforts from above, and do so much more tightly. I suspect this decision was prompted by the success of some of these companies — taking advantage of that small measure of freedom. The government’s has gotten some new rockets and satellite constellations. Now it can step in and take over, like the mobsters communist governments are.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
155 SpaceX
74 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 155 to 125.
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


November ties (with Sept 2025) the most successful orbital launches in one month with 30. It’s also a record for separate organizations launching in a month with 9 (4 USA based & 5 et al).