Tag: China

China launches classified communications test satellite

8:58 am

China yesterday successfully launched a classified communications satellite “to carry out multi-band and high-speed communication technology validation, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spacesport in southwest China.

All we really know about this satellite is that it is part of series. Nor did China reveal where the core stage and four strap-on boosters of the rocket, which use very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

26 SpaceX
10 China
3 Russia
2 Rocket Lab

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SpaceX and China complete launches

9:02 am

Since my last launch report yesterday there have been two more launches (with another planned for later today).

First, last night SpaceX launched another 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket — using a new first stage — lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic. This new stage shows that SpaceX appears building about one to two new first stages per year in order to maintain its fleet.

Next, China placed two classified remote sensing satellites into orbit, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in the northwest of China. No word on where the rocket’s first stage, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuel, crashed inside China.

Another launch is expected later this afternoon, by Russia, launching a new Progress freighter to ISS.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

25 SpaceX
9 China
2 Rocket Lab

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China and SpaceX complete launches

7:36 pm

Two more launches today. First China launched a communications satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China. No word on where the rocket’s core stage and four side boosters crashed inside China. Nor has China released much information about the satellite itself.

Next SpaceX placed another 22 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its eleventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

23 SpaceX
8 China
2 Rocket Lab

At this moment SpaceX’s 23 launches in 2025 is not far short of being twice as much as the 14 launches completed by rest of the entire world combined. It certainly is outpacing everyone else quite handily.

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Chinese pseudo-company GalaxySpace successfully tests its cell-to-satellite system

9:25 am

The Chinese pseudo-company GalaxySpace yesterday successfully proved its its cell-to-satellite technology works, using a smartphone to connect with one of its recently launched satellites.

At 10:28 a.m., a satellite from the constellation passed over the conference venue in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. On-site staff used their mobile phones to connect to the satellite via a terminal device installed on the rooftop. Through a gateway station in Beijing, they established a connection with personnel in Beijing and Thailand.

Calling Thailand was significant because it signaled the signing of a deal with a major Thailand telecommunications operator to provide this service to that country.

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China and SpaceX complete launches

12:02 pm

Both China and SpaceX successfully completed launches today.

First, China completed the first launch of its Long March 8A rocket, an upgraded and more powerful version of its Long March 8 rocket. The rocket lifted off from China’s coastal Wencheng spaceport, and put the second batch (number unrevealed) of one of China’s new mega internet constellations.

Along with the basic Long March-8 model and the booster-free tandem configuration, it forms the Long March 8 series of rockets, providing a payload capacity range of 3 tons, 5 tons, and 7 tons to SSO. This significantly enhances China’s satellite networking capabilities for low and medium Earth orbits.

These rockets and the coastal spaceport will also allow China to steadily reduce its reliance on its older family of rockets that use toxic hypergolic fuels and launch from within China.

Next SpaceX launched another 21 Starliink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 18th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The 2025 launch race:

19 SpaceX
7 China
1 Blue Origin
1 India
1 Japan
1 Russia
1 Rocket Lab

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A Pakistani rover will fly on China’s Chang’e-8 mission to the Moon

9:18 am

Pakistan and China have finalized plans to place a Pakistani rover on China’s Chang’e-8 lunar lander mission.

This rover partnership was first announced in November 2024. This new release appears to provide a bit more information about the rover itself.

The rover will have a mass of around 35 kilograms and carry science payloads for studying lunar soil composition, radiation levels, plasma properties and testing new technologies for sustainable human presence on the Moon. It will also feature a collaborative scientific payload developed by Chinese and European researchers.

The Chang’e-8 mission is targeting a 2030 launch and will land in the Moon’s south pole region. China also claims it will initiate construction of China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), but that’s a bit of hyperbole. All it shall be is another unmanned lander with two rovers and other instruments, hardly a manned base. What will matter will be what follows, and how quickly.

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Strap-on booster of Long March 3B launched yesterday crashed next to home

9:53 am

Long March 3B
Long March 3B

One of the four strap-on boosters used by a Long March 3B rocket that was launched yesterday from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China ended up crashing right next to a home.

The TJS-14 satellite launched on a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday at 10:32 a.m. EST (1532 GMT; 11:32 p.m. local time). The satellite is safely on its way to geostationary orbit, but one of the rocket’s four strap-on side boosters fell to Earth in a populated area of Zhenyuan County in Guizhou province.

Security camera footage posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo captured the scene of two family members reacting to an explosion near their home that lit up the night sky. Fortunately, the booster, which exploded on impact, fell in what appeared to be hills above the house.

The video can be viewed here. While the booster apparently missed the house, any remaining hypergolic fuel in the booster posed a very serious health threat, especially if it was released as a gas. That fuel is extremely toxic, and can dissolve skin if it makes contact. I would expect that until a major clean-up occurred at the crash site, the people that lived in that home will have to evacuate.

China has said that it intends to replace all of its hypergolic-fueled rockets with liquid-fueled, and is expanding operations at its Wenchang coastal spaceport as well. When however these rockets stop launching from its interior spaceports remains unknown. It is likely in fact that toxic stages will continue to fall on the heads of Chinese citizens for years to come.

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China and SpaceX complete launches

10:02 am

Both China and SpaceX successfully completed launches since last night.

First, China placed a classified technology communications test satellite in orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China. No further details about the satellite were released. Nor did China’s state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. UPDATE: One of the four strap-on boosters crashed next to a home.

Then SpaceX this morning launched 23 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 23rd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The 2025 launch race:

11 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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China launches 6th group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation

8:52 am

China late yesterday successfully launched the sixth group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from the Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. The state-run report however touted proudly how the rocket uses liquid oxygen and kerosene, both of which are “non-toxic and pollution-free”. Apparently it has recognized the bad press it has gotten from crashing stages inside China that use very toxic hypergolic fuels.

The article noted that China plans at least ten launches in 2025 of the Long March 6A, likely as part of building this constellation of more than 1,200 satellites.

The 2025 launch race:

10 SpaceX
5 China
1 Blue Origin

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Did a high altitude Grasshopper rocket test last week by China fail?

9:18 am

According to this report from Space News, a high altitude grasshopper-type vertical ascent-descent rocket test that China attempted on January 18, 2025 appears to possibly have been a failure.

Longxing-2 is thought to be a test article for the Long March 12A reusable launcher being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The rocket was designed to replicate the first stage of a reusable flight, reaching around 75 kilometers before performing a reentry burn and making a powered descent and splashdown into the Yellow Sea.

Amateur footage captured from near the launch area showed the rocket rise very slowly from the tower and perform an ascent phase with no apparent anomalies. The test was intended to build on a successful 12-kilometer-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test performed in June 2024.

SAST published results and footage from the June test, but has so far remained silent on the 75-km attempt, being yet to publish any results or details of the flight more than 24 hours after liftoff. The lack of official updates raises questions about the success of the test, which could indicate challenges during reentry or landing phases.

It is also possible that the soft splashdown landing was a success and China is simply being its normal secretive self and refusing to release any information.

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Chinese pseudo-company completes launch

9:09 am

The Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy today completed its first launch in 2025, its solid-fueled Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. It place five satellites in orbit, four for weather and one for Earth observation.

Meanwhile SpaceX yesterday had to scrub a Starlink launch from Vandenberg yesterday at T-11 seconds because an airplane had entered the launch range by mistake. It will try again in a few hours [UPDATE: Now scrubbed till tomorrow], and then follow up with another Starlink launch just after midnight tonight from Kennedy.

The 2025 launch race:

8 SpaceX
4 China
1 Blue Origin

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Is China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover dead?

12:58 pm

According to monthly images taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover on the far side of the Moon, it has not moved since March 2024, suggesting it is no longer functioning.

“Up to about February 2023 the rover was moving about 7 or 8 metres every drive and typically about 40 m per lunar day. Suddenly the drives dropped to about 3 or 4 m each and only about 8 or 10 m per lunar day,” Stooke said in an email.

“That lasted until about October 2023, and then drives dropped to only 1 or 2 m each. In March 2024 Yutu 2 was resting just southwest of a 10 m diameter crater, and it’s been there ever since, as revealed by LRO images,” Stooke added.

It is possible the rover is not entirely dead, but there is no way to be sure. China is not generally forthcoming when things fail. For example, it has never acknowledged the shut down of its Zhurong Mars rover, which it had hoped would survive its first Martian winter. When that winter ended however no reports from Zhurong were released by China, which suggested it was no longer functioning. China however did not report this. It simply made believe the rover no longer existed.

It could be China is now doing the same with Yutu-2.

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Japan identifies a Chinese hacker group as the source of 210 attacks since 2019

9:23 am

The Japanese government has now identified a Chinese hacker group — dubbed “MirrorFace” and likely working with government support and direction — as the source of 210 attacks from 2019 to 2024.

Investigations by the agency’s National Cyber Department and police nationwide found that the malware used by MirrorFace was similar to that employed by the “APT10 Group,” a hacker organization said to be associated with China’s Ministry of State Security.

The targets also aligned with China’s areas of interest and the attacks coincided with Chinese working hours, ceasing during the country’s long holidays, police noted.

Though Japan’s space agency JAXA was a major target, it appears the hackers had many successes with other government agencies, including those related to national security.

This story only adds weight to the previous reports [pdf] of Chinese hacks of JPL, whereby China got the plans of our Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers and used that information to design Zhurong, its first rover to go to Mars.

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China completes its first launch in 2025

11:36 pm

SpaceX is no longer the only entity that has launched a successful orbital launch this year. Early today China successfully placed an “experimental” satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels crashed within China. As for the satellite, China’s state run press merely said that it “was built by its subsidiary Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and is tasked with verifying orbital refueling and life-extension technologies.”

The 2025 launch race:

2 SpaceX
1 China

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Chinese pseudo-company gets major cash influx for its Starlink copycat constellation

9:53 am

The Chinese pseudo-company Genesat, which is making the satellites for the 14,000 Starlink-type satellite constellation being developed by the Chinese pseudo-company SpaceSail, has been awarded $137 million in cash from a variety of Chinese sources, most of which are government agencies focused on encouraging development by these pseudo-companies.

Superficially everything about these companies appears real. They compete for contracts and investment capital, and can only function if they make a profit. They also compete with other similar Chinese pseudo-companies. The reality however is that they only exist because the Chinese government wants them to. For example, Genesat was formed by a partnership of SpaceSail and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (which is entirely government-run). And SpaceSail was formed earlier with support of both the national and local Shanghai governments. For example, consider today’s story:

Shanghai Gesi Aerospace Technology, also known as Genesat, announced the more than 1 billion yuan (approximately $137 million) funding round Dec. 30. The main investors include China’s National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund, China Development Bank Science and Technology Innovation, Guosheng Capital, SIMIC Capital and Shanghai FTZ Fund.

The first two backers are both government agencies created to funnel government cash to these pseudo-companies.

Overall this approach by the communist Chinese government has worked remarkably well. It has created an robust space industry within a competitive and innovative atmosphere. That industry only exists however as long as the present policies of the Chinese government exist. If there is a major change in leadership it all could vanish in a moment, as there are no property rights in China. A new government could do as Putin did in Russia, consolidate all these pseudo-companies into a central government-run agencies in order to more closely control them.

For the present however China’s pseudo-capitalist approach means it will be a major player in space in the coming years. That success might even lead to a positive change in government, throwing the communists out of power eventually. It is not only demonstrating the advantages of freedom and competition over a top-down command economy, it is developing a class of people doing it. They might eventually have enough wealth and power to take over the government and changes things for real.

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China replaces head of its space agency

9:16 am

The man who has headed China’s space agency since 2018 during its most aggressive and successful period, Zhang Kejian, has been replaced by the Chinese government. Zhang has also been removed from another important political post.

Zhang, 63, who has been head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) since May 2018, is to be removed as Party Secretary of the State Administration for National Defense Science, Technology, and Industry (SASTIND), the agency announced Dec. 26. Shan Zhongde, 54, has been appointed as his replacement. The leader of SASTIND typically also heads CNSA and the China Atomic Energy Authority, both of which are subordinate agencies to SASTIND. CNSA has yet to announce the expected change.

China’s state run press provided no explanation for this change, though it also follows the removal of two other high ranking managers this year from another space agency, CASC, that is supervised by CNSA. Those removals are thought related to reports of corruption.

In the past two decades CNSA administrators went on to become heads of Chinese provinces, the approximate equivalent of a state governor in the U.S. and a somewhat powerful position. It appeared the Xi government was using its space agency as a training ground for its future political leaders. This in turn gave its space operations a favorable political position within the government.

Zhang’s removal in this manner and the rumors of corruption suggest this policy failed in his case. Another possibility is ven more significant if true. It might imply Zhang was involved in some power struggle that threatened Xi and his leadership. If this last possibility is so, the present favored political position of China’s space operations might be seriously threatened. Xi might have decided he did not like the power its leaders have garnered, and is now moving to squash it.

This does not mean the government will now move to reduce its space effort. It could mean however that funding will be more closely watched, and new projects questioned and rejected more easily.

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Chinese solid-fueled rocket fails during launch

9:26 am

The commercial division of a Chinese space agency, dubbed CAS Space, late yesterday experienced a launch failure of its solid-fueled Kinetica-1 rocket, lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

A statement by the pseudo-company described the failure tersely:

We can confirm that the first two stages were nominal. Stage 3 lost attitude three seconds after ignition and the self-destructing mechanism was activated.

Nothing was said about where the first two stages crashed inside China, or whether they landed near habitable areas.

According to the first link above, this was the second launch failure by China in 2024, which is incorrect. This was the third launch failure for China (see here and here for previous two). That article also says this was the 68th total launch this year, suggesting China has completed 66 successful launches. This does not jive with my count, which presently says China has had 64 successful orbital launches this year. I suspect the two additional launched might have been suborbital tests — such as first stage hop tests (here, here, and here) — which I do not include in these totals. It also might be including the accidental launch of one first stage during a static fire test when it broke free and launched itself unintentional.

More recent information from my readers (see the comments below) suggests that, though the numbers above are not correct, my own count for China’s total successful orbital launches needs adjusting as well. I had marked a March 13th Chinese launch as a failure because the satellites were not placed in their proper orbit. However, using their thrusters engineers were eventually able to get them into place and they are operating. I have therefore increased China’s totals below by one.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

134 SpaceX
65 China
17 Russia
14 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 154 to 97, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 134 to 117.

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China launches a communications test satellite

3:36 pm

According to China’s uninformative state-run press, it today launched “a test satellite for communication technology,” its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No other details about the satellite were released. Nor did the state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuel, crashed inside China.

As is usual for China, it is doing a lot of launches at the end of the year. Though weather might be a factor, I also suspect it is the ordinary “use-it-or-lose-it” symptom of a government-run communist society. Budgets are set for the year. Government agencies find that they better launch or they will lose that budgeted amount in the next year’s budget.

This might not apply to China but if so it would explain its strange end-of-year launch pattern.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

132 SpaceX
64 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 151 to 96, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 132 to 115.

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Chinese pseudo-company launches four satellites

8:41 am

According to China’s state-run press, China early this morning successfully launched four satellites using a commercial rocket, Ceres-1, that lifted off from an off shore launch platform on the country’s northeast coast.

The rocket supposedly belongs to the pseudo-company Galactic Energy, but China’s state-run press did not think this information was important enough to mention, illustrating why I think the company is not real. The satellites were likely communications satellites intended for one of the several giant satellite constellations China is building, but that information was also left out of China’s reporting.

132 SpaceX
63 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 151 to 95, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 132 to 114.

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China and SpaceX complete launches

11:21 pm

Two launches today. First China launched four Earth observation radar satellites, its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China. No word where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed within China.

SpaceX then launched a GPS-type satellite for the Space Force, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Little was released about the payload and what information was released was not very informative. The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

130 SpaceX
62 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 149 to 94, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 130 to 113.

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China launches first set of satellites for planned internet megaconstellations

9:42 am

China today successfully launched an unknown number of satellites in the first launch of one of its planned internet megaconstellations designed to compete with Starlink, its Long March 5B rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

Not revealing the number of satellites launched is probably a violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which requires each signatory to inform others of its launches and at a minimum the number of objects placed in orbit. This constellation, dubbed Guowang, is hoping to launch as many as 13,000 satellites, and that will require some coordination to prevent it from interfering with the constellations launched by others. Not revealing the size of this satellite group makes such coordination impossible.

In a bit of good news, it appears China has solved the problem of its Long March 5B rocket, which in the past had used its core stage to place objects in orbit. After payload deployment that core stage would be in an unstable an orbit that would quickly decay, allowing the stage to crash uncontrolled, thus threatening habitable areas worldwide. The rocket’s new upper stage now takes the payloads into orbit, so the core stage can drop off sooner and fall into the ocean harmlessly.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

129 SpaceX
61 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 148 to 93, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 129 to 112.

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Chinese citizen arrested for flying drone illegally over Vandenberg

10:29 am

Yinpiao Zhou, a Chinese citizen in America on a legal immigrant visa, has been arrested for flying a drone illegally over Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Nearly a mile above Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, a hacked drone soared through restricted airspace for roughly an hour. The lightweight drone photographed sensitive areas of the military facility on Nov. 30, including a complex used by SpaceX, according to federal investigators. The drone then descended back to the ground, where the pilot and another man waited at a nearby park.

Before either could leave however, four security officers from Vandenberg showed up. Initially Zhou lied about what he was doing, hiding the drone under his jacket. At one point however the officers spotted the drone, forcing Zhou to admit the truth as well as delete the footage on the drone.

Neither Zhou or the second man, who remains unidentified, were arrested at that time. Zhou was arrested on December 9, 2024 at San Francisco International Airport, just before he was to board a flight back to China. He is charged with flying a drone illegally out of his line of sight and in a no-fly zone, and remains in custody.

It appears this was an intended spying operation by China or one of its pseudo-companies, attempting to steal more information about SpaceX’s technology in order to copy it. Why Zhou and that other man were not arrested immediately is unclear.

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A satellite startup in Oman signs on to China’s lunar base partnership

10:03 am

Middle East, showing Oman's proposed spaceport

Oman Lens, a satellite startup in Oman, has signed an agreement with China to participate in its International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) lunar base project.

This follows Oman’s first suborbital launch, which according to Oman’s state-run press lifted off from its Duqm proposed spaceport facility and reached space. None of this however has been confirmed, though government officials said they hope to do three more suborbital test flights in the next year.

The Duqm spaceport hopes to be fully operational for orbital flights by 2026. Besides China, Oman has also been in negotiations with various American rocket startup companies, though no deals have been announced, mostly because of the State Department’s ITAR restrictions protecting American technology from hostile foreign theft. Oman is not necessarily considered a friendly country.

It appears Oman decided to make a deal with China when it couldn’t make one with the U.S.

As for China’s ILRS project — it formed in competition with the U.S. Artemis Accords — it has now signed thirteen countries and about a dozen academic institutions and international companies. It claims it hopes to get fifty countries on board, but that number likely includes such institutions, not nations.

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China launches five satellites to test the design of a planned laser communications constellation

9:41 am

China today successfully placed the first five satellites of a planned satellite constellation called the “High Speed Laser Diamond Constellation,” its Long March 2D rocket lifting from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

The satellites are apparently intended to test the engineering of using lasers for communications. China’s state-run press provided little further information. Nor did it say where the rocket’s lower stages, using toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

128 SpaceX (with a launch scheduled for later today)
60 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 147 to 92, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 128 to 111.

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Another record-setting launch day worldwide

9:19 am

In what might be a record for the global launch industry, yesterday saw a total of four launches at four different spaceports worldwide.

That record might very well be matched today. Already three launches have already taken place, with one more scheduled.

First, India’s space agency ISRO successfully launched European Space Agency’s PROBA-XL solar telescope, its PSLV rocket lifting off from its Sriharikota spaceport on India’s eastern coast. This was India’s fourth launch in 2024.

Next, China launched what its state-run press merely described as a “group of satellites,” its Long March 6 rocket taking off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northern China. That state-run press also said nothing about where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters crashed inside China. (UPDATE: More information about the payload can be found here. It appears to have been the third set of 18 satellites launched as part of China’s attempt to compete with Starlink.)

Then, SpaceX launched SXM-9, a new satellite for the constellation of the radio company Siruis-XM, its Falcon 9 lifting off from Kennedy in Florida. The first stage completed its nineteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. As of posting the satellite had not yet been deployed.

If all goes as planned, the fourth flight today will be the first launch in more than two years of Avio’s Vega-C rocket, which has been grounded while the company redesigned and then redesigned again the engine nozzle of its upper stage. The launch is also one of the last that will be managed by Arianespace, which is giving up control to Avio over the next year. The live stream is here.

If successful, it will be the eighth launch worldwide in only two days, something that I am fairly certain has never been done before. In the past there simply weren’t enough independent entities and spaceports available to allow this number of launches in such a short period of time. What makes this record even more striking is that three of the eight launches were launched by one private American company, SpaceX.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

127 SpaceX
59 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 146 to 89, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 127 to 108.

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Two launches completed of the seven launches expected in the next 24 hours

9:04 am

Today will be one of the busiest ever at spaceports worldwide. Already we have had two launches, with five more expected by this time tomorrow.

First, China launched a radar satellite, its Kuaizhou-1A solid-fueled rocket lifting off from the Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China. No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed in China.

Next, SpaceX placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida in the early morning hours. The first stage completed a record 24th flight, the most flights of any Falcon 9 booster so far, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

And we are only getting started today. If all goes right, by this time tomorrow Russia will have done a military launch from its Plesetsk spaceport, Arianespace will have launched a Vega-C from French Guiana, SpaceX will have completed two more Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg and Kennedy, and India will have launched its PSLV rocket from its Sriharikota spaceport.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

125 SpaceX
58 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 144 to 86, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 125 to 105.

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Analysis of Chang’e-6’s lunar samples suggest the giant impact that caused Aitken Basin occurred 2.83 billion years ago

10:33 am

Chang'e-6's landing site
Click for original image of Chang’e-6 on the Moon

In a paper published in mid-November, Chinese scientists have concluded that — based on their analysis of the lunar samples returned by their Chang’e-6 spacecraft — the giant impact that created the 1,600-mile-wide South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon occurred about 2.83 billion years ago.

This conclusion is based both on the dating of the samples as well an analysis of the cratering rate on the Moon. It also suggests the landing site as well as Aitken basin were volcanically active for longer than previous predictions. Overall, scientists believe most volcanic activity on the Moon ceased around three billion years ago.

As noted in the paper, the near and far sides of the Moon are very different.

The Moon has a global dichotomy, with its near and far sides having different geomorphology, topography, chemical composition, crustal thickness, and evidence of volcanism. Volcanic eruptions flooded parts of the surface with lava, producing rocks known as mare basalts, which are more common on the nearside (4), where they cover ~30% of the surface compared to 2% of the farside.

The farside’s crust is also thicker, though under Aitken Basin the difference largely disappears.

This first precise dating for the far side is the first step for understanding why the Moon’s hemispheres are so different. Though many theories exist, none can be considered definitive because we so far have only one data point for the far side.

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China launches communications test satellite

9:19 am

China today successfully launched a communications satellite designed according to its state-run press to test new communication technologies, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

124 SpaceX
57 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 85, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 104.

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