China’s Zhuque-3 copycat Falcon 9 reaches orbit on first launch; 1st stage crashes

10:32 pm

Zhuque-3 at launch
Screen capture from China’s
state-run press

The methane-fueled Zhuque-3 rocket built by China’s Landspace pseudo-company successfully reached orbit today on its first launch, though the attempt to land the first stage vertically for later reuse failed when it crashed near its landing zone.

The reusable rocket, designed by the Beijing-based commercial space company LandSpace, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s northwest at noon on Wednesday. After reaching a low-Earth orbit, the first stage of the rocket – the lower section that lifts the vehicle off the ground – appeared to catch fire in the air before crashing near the target recovery site.

I think a video of that failed landing can be seen here, though I cannot be sure, as it appeared to go up on youtube immediately at launch time, almost too soon.

For the Landspace pseudo-company, getting this rocket to orbit on the first try is a major success. It plans several more launches in the coming months, with each attempting a similar landing. Based on SpaceX’s history in this matter, it should not take it long to achieve its first landing success.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

158 SpaceX
75 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 158 to 127.

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Genesis cover

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 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

SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites

3:26 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 25th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. With this flight, this booster, B1077, has now tied the space shuttle Endeavour in reuses, and is only three behind the Columbia shuttle.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

158 SpaceX (a new record)
74 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 158 to 126.

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December 2, 2025 Quick space links

3:01 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

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Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

Astronomers detect another galaxy that shouldn’t be there, so soon after the Big Bang

11:38 am

A spiral galaxy too early in the universe
Click for original.

Using the Webb Space Telescopes astronomers have detected another galaxy that shouldn’t be there, so soon after the Big Bang.

The image to the right comes from figure 1 of the peer-reviewed paper. The galaxy’s two spiral arms form a backward “S” emanating out from the galaxy’s nucleus. From the press release:

Using JWST, researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar spotted a galaxy remarkably similar to our own Milky Way. Yet this system formed when the cosmos was barely 1.5 billion years old—roughly a tenth of its present age. They named it Alaknanda, after the Himalayan river that is a twin headstream of the Ganga alongside the Mandakini—fittingly, the Hindi name for the Milky Way.

…It already has two sweeping spiral arms wrapped around a bright, rounded central region (the galaxy’s ‘bulge’), spanning about 30,000 light-years across. Even more impressively, it is annually churning out new stars, their combined mass roughly equivalent to 60 times the mass of our Sun. This rate is about 20 times that of the present-day Milky Way! About half of Alaknanda’s stars appear to have formed in only 200 million years—a blink in cosmic time.

This galaxy underlines the difficulty for cosmologists by much of Webb’s data of the early universe. Present theories of galaxy formation say it should take billions of years to form such a spiral galaxy, meaning it shouldn’t exist as yet so soon, only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

Either the theories have to be revised substantially, or they are simply wrong entirely. Or we are missing or lacking in some fundamental information about the early universe that skews all our theories.

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Blue Origin faces opposition renewing its permit to dump waste water at Florida launch facility

11:17 am

Chicken Little strikes again!
Chicken Little strikes again!

It appears several local politicians as well as the typical anti-everything activists are expressing opposition to Blue Origin’s request to renew its permit to dump waste water at its Florida launch facility.

Some county commissioners have concerns about the proposal because of how much money and effort has gone to cleaning up the Indian River. “That’s really troubling to me especially when we are spending so much money as a community on the half-cent sales tax and the save the Indian River Lagoon tax,” said Brevard County Commissioner Katie Delaney.

Space experts say large-scale companies don’t necessarily follow rules and regulations put on them. “There has been all sorts of industrial waste issues associated with the aerospace industry not just here in Florida but all across the country,” Florida Tech space professor, Don Platt, said.

The water is likely that used during launches to dampen the shock produced by the rocket’s engines, and like SpaceX’s systems, is almost certainly potable and harmless. This is also a permit that Blue Origin obtained five years ago and has used without harm during all its launchpad tests and launches.

None of this whining really matters, as it appears the county commission has no authority over the matter. The permit was issued by the state’s environmental department which will almost certainly approve the renewal. It is just unfortunate that these whiners almost always get positive coverage from our propaganda press. In this case the local Fox affiliate that reported the story clearly made no effort to research anything. It just simply spouted back the grumbles of these politicians and activists.

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Leaving Earth cover

Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.

If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.

 
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Three new papers find sugars, “gum,” and lots of stardust in the samples brought back from the asteroid Bennu

10:24 am

Bennu
The asteroid Bennu

Three new papers published this week have found that the samples brought back by OSIRIS-REx from the asteroid Bennu contained some unexpected or unusual materials, including sugars that are important for biology, a gumlike material never seen before, and a much higher amount of stardust than expected.

The papers can be read here, here, and here.

As the press release notes, describing the sugar discovery:

The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found. Although these sugars are not evidence of life, their detection, along with previous detections of amino acids, nucleobases, and carboxylic acids in Bennu samples, show building blocks of biological molecules were widespread throughout the solar system.

The stardust results found six-times the abundance previously found in other samples.

As for the “gum”, this was possibly the strangest discovery of all, coming from the solar system’s earliest time period.
» Read more

3 comments

All eight ports on ISS occupied for the first time; Longest manned mission about to start?

9:56 am

ISS as presently configured
ISS as presently configured. Click for original.

For the first time in its more than quarter century history, all eight docking ports on ISS are occupied, as shown in the graphic to the right.

For the first time in International Space Station history, all eight docking ports aboard the orbital outpost are occupied following the reinstallation of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL cargo spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Unity module. The eight spacecraft attached to the complex are: two SpaceX Dragons, Cygnus XL, JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) HTV-X1, two Roscosmos Soyuz crew spacecraft, and two Progress cargo ships.

This milestone follows the reattachment of the Cygnus XL spacecraft, supporting the Northrop Grumman-23 commercial resupply services mission for NASA, which was removed last week by the robotics officer at the agency’s Mission Control Center in Houston using the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. The Cygnus XL movement was coordinated between NASA, Northrop Grumman, and Roscosmos to provide appropriate clearance for the arriving crewed Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on Nov. 27.

Cygnus will remain attached to the orbiting laboratory until no earlier than March 2026, when it is scheduled to safely depart and dispose of up to 11,000 pounds of trash and unneeded cargo when it harmlessly burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.

This situation will not last of course, and in fact it may never happen again before the station is retired around 2030. First, Cygnus will leave in March. Second, one Russian Soyuz capsule will leave shortly, as the presence of two simply indicates a crew rotation is underway.

Third, it is presently unclear when the Russians will be able to launch further Soyuz or Progress capsules. » Read more

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China reveals its plans for the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule docked to Tiangong-3

9:28 am

The Tiangong-3 station, as presently configured
The Tiangong-3 station, as presently configured,
with two Shenzou capsules docked at either end.

Having successfully docked Shenzhou-22 as a lifeboat to its Tiangong-3 space station last week, China’s state-run press yesterday outlined its plans for the damaged Shenzhou-20 capsule that is still docked to the station but cannot be used by its crew because of cracks in one viewport.

First, China’s space operations have decided to attempt a return of the capsule back to Earth, unmanned, so the damage can be inspected in greater detail. Before that happens however the astronauts on board the station will do their own inspection, including the possibility of adding a patch.

During a subsequent spacewalk, the Shenzhou-21 crew, who are now undertaking a six-month orbital stay, may be tasked with inspecting the cracked viewport. They may also perform protective work on it using specialized devices delivered by the Shenzhou-22 launch — a procedure still being validated in ground tests, said Ji in a recent CCTV interview.

A day prior to their planned return on Nov. 5, the Shenzhou-20 crew spotted an anomaly on the viewport’s edge — a triangular, paint-like mark. They photographed it from multiple angles and under different lights, while the station’s robotic arm cameras were employed to take supplemental external pictures.

The flaw was later identified as “penetrating cracks,” said Jia Shijin, chief designer of the crewed spaceship system from China Academy of Space Technology. “The space debris responsible is preliminarily judged to be less than a millimeter in size, but struck with extremely high speed.”

This description of the damage is the most detailed China as yet revealed. These details certainly fit the description of an impact from an outside source, though considering China’s general lack of transparency some skepticism should still be retained. For example, we still do not know if these “penetrating cracks” mean the capsule is no longer holding its atmosphere, or if the crew has closed the capsule’s hatch to keep the air loss to a minimum.

Either way, it appears China’s engineers are concerned that this damage could cause a major break-up of the capsule during re-entry, and are thus considering options for covering it during that return.

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German rocket startup Isar gets launch contract from ESA

8:25 am

The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace yesterday announced it has won a launch contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to place a satellite carrying a number of experimental payloads into orbit before the end of 2026.

Satellite launch service company Isar Aerospace has signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch the ΣYNDEO-3 mission under the European Union’s In-Orbit Demonstration and In-Orbit Validation Programme (IOD/IOV). The launch will be carried out from Isar Aerospace’s dedicated launch complex at Andøya Space in Norway from Q4 2026.

…Redwire is the prime contractor for the ΣYNDEO-3 mission and will be delivering its Hammerhead spacecraft for a launch onboard Isar Aerospace’s launch vehicle Spectrum to a low Earth orbit (LEO). The spacecraft was built and integrated at Redwire’s state-of-the-art satellite processing facility in Belgium. The spacecraft aggregates 10 innovative payloads from six countries and institutions: Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the EC.

Isar has yet to reach orbit with its Spectrum rocket. The first launch failed in March only seconds after launch. A second attempt is presently scheduled for sometime prior to December 21, 2025, lifting off from Andoya.

This is the second new launch contract Isar has announced in the past two weeks, and the third since September. At the moment it appears it is gaining momentum pending that first launch later this month, especially because a successful December launch would make it the first European rocket startup to successfully reach orbit.

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Senate Commerce committee to move up its vote on Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator

8:01 am

Jared Isaacman
Billionaire Jared Isaacman

Today Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced that the Commerce committee he heads will vote on the re-nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA administration on December 8, 2025, only five days after tomorrow’s renomination hearing.

It appears Cruz and his committee is pushing to get Isaacman approved as quickly as possible. At least one Republican senator, John Cornyn (R-Texas) has met with Isaacman again and gotten his commitment to move the space shuttle Discovery to Texas, as mandated by the budget bill passed several months ago. That commitment was likely a quid pro quo by Cornyn to get his vote for Isaacman.

Once Isaacman is approved by Cruz’s committee, the Senate could vote at any time. Whether it will do so before the end of the year remains unknown, as it would likely require a special session as the Senate is expected to be in recess until after the new year.

If it does not, it will likely give Isaacman very little time to review the next Artemis mission, tentatively schedule for launch as early as February 2026, carrying four astronauts around the Moon on a Orion capsule with a questionable heat shield and an untested environmental system.

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SpaceX gets Air Force approval to launch and land Starship/Superheavy at Cape Canaveral

12:01 am

Cape Canaveral

The Air Force announced late yesterday [pdf] that it will now allow SpaceX to launch its Starship/Superheavy rocket at Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral in Florida (as shown on the map to the right) as many as 76 times per year, with twice that number of landings.

The DAF [Department of Air Force] decision authorizes SpaceX to use SLC-37 at CCSFS [Cape Canaveral Space Force Station] to support Starship-Super Heavy launch and landing operations, including the redevelopment of SLC-37 and the other infrastructure improvements required and analyzed in the FEIS [Final Environmental Impact Statement]. Under this ROD [record of decision], upon execution of the real property agreement and associated documentation, and as analyzed in the FEIS while adhering to the mitigation measures specified in Appendix A to this ROD, SpaceX is authorized to: (1) undertake construction activities necessary to re-develop SLC-37 and associated infrastructure for Starship Super Heavy operations; (2) conduct prelaunch operations, including the transportation of launch vehicle components and static fire tests; and (3) conduct up to 76 launches and 152 landings annually once a supplemental analysis of airspace impacts by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is completed. [emphasi mine]

The deal also requires SpaceX to do some road upgrades in order to transport the rocket from its Gigabay to the launch tower. The company immediately announced on X yesterday that it has already begun construction, and expects to have three pads in Florida before all is done.

The final environmental impact statement [pdf] was released on November 20, 2025, and concluded in more than 200 pages that there will be no significant impact from these launch operations, something that should be self-evident after more than three-quarters of century of rocketry at the Cape. The existence of the spaceport acts to protect wildlife, because it limits development across a wide area.

The report suggested that some turtle species and one mouse specie might “affected adversely”, but it it also appears that risk was considered minor and not enough to block development. To deal with this however the impact statement requires SpaceX to do a number of mitigation actions, similar to what it is required to do at Boca Chica.

One fact must be recognized, based on the red tape and delays experienced by SpaceX during the Biden administration. Had Kamala Harris and the cadre that ran the White House under Biden had been in office now, this approval would almost certainly have not happened, or if it did, it would have likely been delayed for a considerable amount of time, into next year at the earliest. It is certain that Trump is clearing the path to prevent red tape and the administrative state from slowing things down unnecessarily.

This announcement also strengthens the likelihood that SpaceX will do at least one launch of Starship/Superheavy from Florida in 2026. And if not then, by 2027 for sure.

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