Tag: China

China to begin construction of its Mars sample return spacecraft

8:13 am

China’s state-run press today announced it is about to begin construction of its Mars sample return spacecraft, Tianwen-3, set for launch in 2028.

Based on the announcement, that date seems very unlikely.

China’s mission to retrieve samples from Mars will advance to the flight model development phase within this year, Liu Jizhong, chief designer of the Tianwen-3 mission, said on Thursday. Building on the preliminary technical research and demonstrations, the mission has achieved breakthroughs in key technologies. The engineering team is now focused on developing prototypes, Liu, also a national legislator, told reporters.

The Mars sample return mission is scheduled for launch around 2028, with the goal of returning no less than 500 grams of Martian samples to Earth by around 2031. [emphasis mine]

They only have two years to get the spacecraft built, and it involves “an orbiter, a returner, a lander, an ascender, and a service module.” While China is basing this mission’s design on its successful Chang’e lunar sample return missions, returning samples from Mars is significantly more challenging. The ascent vehicle will have a much greater gravity to overcome, and doing a robotic rendezvous and docking in orbit around another planet millions of miles from Earth has never even been tried.

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China completes two launches early today

7:40 am

China early today resumed launches after a month-long pause, apparently for the Chinese New Year.

First, it completed the 20th launch for the Guowang (Satnet) internet satellite constellation, its Long March 8A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wencheng spaceport.

Though China’s state-run press provided no information on the number of satellites in the payload, all previous launches using the Long March 8A had carried nine satellites. If so, that would mean the constellation now has 159 satellites in orbit, out of a planned 13,000.

Next, China placed two “test satellites” into orbit, its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China. Its state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

30 SpaceX
10 China
3 Rocket Lab
2 Russia

SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25. Though it has up to now almost doubled the launch pace of everyone else, with China resuming launches that pace will likely end.

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China’s giant Spacesail constellation seeks more funding

9:57 am

Spacesail, one of the largest of China’s planned constellations designed to compete with Starlink, is now seeking more funding to build its full constellation of 10,000 to 14,000 satellites.

Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, or SpaceSail, a satellite communications company developing a massive constellation known as “Qianfan,” disclosed plans to bring in new investors through a capital increase, according to a notice published on the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange.

At present, this Chinese pseudo-company has launched only 119 out of the constellation’s first phase of 648 satellites. While it has gotten Airbus to sign a contract to use its constellation on its airplanes, it also appears to be somewhat cash poor, having only about $150 million on hand (much of it government funding), and is not going to meet its international licensing requirement to get those 648 satellites in orbit by the end of this year.

This new funding round announcement suggests it is in need of capital, and is having trouble getting the Chinese government to cough up the additional funds.

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Chinese scientists pinpoint a prime landing site for its manned lunar mission

9:21 am

Potential landing site for China's manned lunar landing

Though no final decision has apparently been made, a just published research paper suggests that China is considering a location almost dead center on the Moon’s near side, on the edge of a mare region dubbed Sinus Aestruum, for its first manned lunar landing, presently targeting a 2030 launch date. From the abstract:

We propose four prospective landing sites in the traversable areas, which provide a range of diverse geological samples, including volcanic debris, mare basalts, Copernicus crater ejecta and high-Th materials. Such a collection may provide insights into the geological evolution of the region and enhance our understanding of the lunar mantle composition and volcanic processes.

The red star on global lunar map to the right, taken from figure 1 of the paper, shows the location of this region. The lower map zooms into the region, with the four stars indicating the four prospective landing sites. The region has several rilles, long meandering channels thought to have formed from lava flow, that could be reached during an EVA.

Though it appears the scientists of this paper are lobbying for this landing region and no final decision has been reached, its location and wide variety of geology strongly suggests this will be the final choice. If so, of the four landing sites outlined two are in the smoother mare regions, and two are off the edge, in rougher terrain. For safety considerations, it is likely the final landing site will be in one of the former.

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China outlines plans for manned space program

10:26 am

China’s state-run press today outlined a short update on the status of its manned space station program as well as its planned manned lunar landing, still targeting a 2030 launch.

For the space station, these are its upcoming plans:

China is scheduled to launch two crewed missions and one cargo spacecraft mission for its space station operation in 2026, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). An astronaut from the Hong Kong or Macao special administrative region is expected to carry out a space station flight mission as early as this year, the CMSA noted.

One astronaut from the Shenzhou-23 crew will conduct a year-long in-orbit stay experiment, the CMSA said.

I am willing to bet that China is planning an even longer station mission that will break Valeri Polyakov’s 14.5 month record mission, set in the 1990s on Mir.

As for China’s lunar landing plans, nothing new was announced:

China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030. The development of major flight products, including the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft, and the Lanyue lunar lander, is proceeding smoothly. Key tests have been completed, including the zero-height abort test for the Mengzhou spacecraft, the landing and takeoff test for the Lanyue lunar lander, the static fire test and the low-altitude demonstration and validation test for the Long March-10 rocket system, and the maximum dynamic pressure escape test for the Mengzhou spacecraft system.

In 2026, the country will intensify efforts to advance the construction of supporting facilities and equipment for the lunar mission at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern Hainan Province, as well as the development of ground support systems.

China has not yet outlined a program of missions leading up to that lunar landing. Like Apollo and now Artemis, it makes sense to do low orbit rendezvous and docking tests of these various spacecraft before heading to the Moon. It also makes sense to do these same tests first in lunar orbit, before landing. Expect China to announce such a program soon, for launch in the 2027-2029 timeframe.

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Chinese astronauts provide their perspective on the cracked Shenzhou-20 window

9:49 am

Shenzhou-20 after return
Shenzhou-20 after its return to Earth. The damaged
window can be seen on the right. Click for original image.

The Chinese Shenzhou-20 crew this week gave a detailed interview describing their discovery and inspection of the cracks in the window of their Shenzhou-20 capsule.

Chen Dong, commander of the Shenzhou-20 crew, first noticed the damage to the window while conducting final checks on the return capsule. The believed culprit: space debris striking the window. …As mission commander for Shenzhou-20, Chen said he was the one who went for checking out the return craft. During that work, “I spotted something like a triangular on the viewport,” he said. “My first thought was whether a small leaf had somehow stuck to the outside of the window,” said Chen. “But then I quickly realized that couldn’t happen because we were in space. How could there possibly be a fallen leaf there?”

Chen pointed out the window anomaly to his two other colleagues also in ready mode for the return trek to Earth. Wang, who served as the flight engineer on the Shenzhou-20 mission, had previously worked as an aerospace technician involved in the construction of China’s space station before becoming an astronaut. “I wasn’t really nervous, actually. The outermost layer of the viewport is a protective layer, and inside it there are two pressure-bearing layers, and we are safe as long as the cabin pressure doesn’t change,” said Wang.

Using a 40x microscope, they determined that some of the cracks had penetrated through the window’s outermost layer.

As of today however China has yet to release images of the cracks, or if they have, no western media source has found and released them.

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Chinese pseudo-company Landspace targeting April-June for 2nd Zhuque-3 launch

10:24 am

Zhuque-3 at launch
Screen capture from China’s
state-run press of the first Zhuque-3
launch on December 2, 2025.

The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace now hopes to make its second orbital launch and recovery attempt of its Zhuque-3 rocket sometime in the April-June ’26 time frame.

The first launch in December ’25 was a success, getting its upper stage into its planned orbit. The attempt to vertically land the first stage however failed. The stage came down almost precisely on its target landing pad, but the engines failed and so it crashed instead of landing softly.

Officials say that they also hope to begin reusing the first stage quickly, if it should land successfully, with the first reuse planned for late this year. The rocket itself has about two-thirds the capacity of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, and is being marketed to launch the half-dozen giant satellite constellations China is presently attempting to place in orbit.

Since the beginning of this year there has been a decided pause of news from China’s pseudo-companies. I have speculated this dearth of the normal stream of PR announcements might be related to a power-play by the new government agency created last year to supervise these pseudo-companies. It also could simply be the government has told them to tone it down a bit. Better to sell actual achievement than empty plans.

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Chinese pseudo-company raises $729 million

10:35 pm

The Chinese pseudo-company rocket startup Ispace announced on February 13, 2026 that it has raised $729 million in new investment capital.

Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, announced the D++ funding worth 5.037 billion yuan Feb. 12, following a D+ round of $98 million (700 million yuan) in September 2025. The round appears to be the largest disclosed funding round so far for a Chinese launch startup, eclipsing the previous rounds secured by Space Pioneer ($350 million) and Galactic Energy ($336 million) in 2025.

A press statement outlines a hybrid syndicate of numerous funding round participants, incgovernment industrial funds, state-linked strategic ecosystem investors, municipal and provincial investment vehicles and private equity. This follows a trend of strong strategic investment in space companies in China over the past couple of years since the central government identified commercial space as a strategic emerging industry and key driver of high-tech development. Co-leads Tongchuang Weiye and existing shareholder Jingming Capital represent market-oriented investors focused on advanced manufacturing and aerospace, and were joined by repeat backing from private equity players such as CDH Baifu and Ganquan Capital. [emphasis mine]

It is hard to determine how independent these Chinese investment firms are from the government. I suspect the communists are closely involved in some manner or another.

The press release made no mention of a timeline for when Ispace will attempt the first launch and recovery of its Hyperbola-3 rocket. It had previously targeted a 2025 launch, but that never happened.

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Four launches today with mostly positive results

10:15 am

This morning saw a string of launches from China, Russia, America, and Europe, with all four appearing to get their payloads into orbit though the American launch, by ULA’s Vulcan rocket, appeared to have a problem with one of its solid-fueled boosters.

First, a Chinese pseudo-company owned entirely by a Chinese government agency successfully placed seven satellites in orbit, its Smart Dragon-3 rocket (also called Jielong-3) lifting off from a platform off the coast of northeast China. Of the satellites, the prime payload was a Pakistani Earth observation satellite.

Though this launch was from a pseudo-company, I think I can safely say that the pause in launches by China’s so-called commercial market continues. Smart Dragon-3 was built by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which while structured as a private company is owned and controlled by several agencies of the Chinese government.

Next, Russia successfully launched a new weather satellite, its Proton rocket launching from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. This was the first Proton launch in three years, a pause partly because Russia is in the process of retiring that rocket. The lower stages crashed in a range of spots in Kazakhstan and across southern Russia, just missing China in two places.

The American company ULA then followed with its first launch in 2026, its Vulcan rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida and carrying two military satellites designed to track other satellite operations in high geosynchronous orbit.

Unexpected debris falling from rocket at about T-1:00
Unexpected debris falling from rocket at about T-1:00

While it appears the launch was able to get the satellites into their correct orbits, the Vulcan rocket had an issue during the launch. According to ULA, one of the rocket’s four solid-fueled boosters had a problem during its flight. More details can be found here, suggesting the booster, built by Northrop Grumman, might have had a been a failure of the booster’s nozzle, similar to the same burn-through that occurred on a booster during Vulcan’s second launch in 2024, and also occurred during a Northrop Grumman static fire test in 2025.

This issue is likely going to delay further Vulcan launches, and will likely make it impossible for ULA to meet its goal of launching 16 to 18 Vulcan missions this year. It will also raise hackles within the Pentagon, which certified Vulcan for military launches in 2025. That certification will likely be questioned, and possibly even pulled.

Finally, Arianespace sent 32 Leo satellites into orbit for Amazon, its Ariane-6 rocket lifting off from French Guiana. This was the first Ariane-6 launch in its most powerful variant, using four strap-on boosters.

Amazon has now launched 212 Leo satellites. Its FCC license however requires it to have 1,616 in orbit by July. The company has requested a waiver on that requirement, and is likely to get it, since it is now demonstrating that it is serious about launching the constellation.

The 2026 launch race:

16 SpaceX
8 China
2 Rocket Lab
2 Russia
1 ULA
1 Europe (Arianespace)

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China completes launch abort test of Mengzhou capsule; also vertically lands Long March 10A 1st stage in ocean

7:50 am

Long March 10A 1st stage splashing down softly on test flight
Click for source.

China today completed a major test for its future manned lunar program. In launch for the first time the first stage of its new Long March 10A, it not only succeeded in completing a launch abort of its next generation Mengzhou manned capsule — intended not only for its space station but for its manned lunar program — the first stage successfully completed a vertical soft splashdown in the ocean.

The uncrewed vessel took off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre on the southern island of Hainan aboard a Long March-10 prototype test rocket at 11am on Wednesday.

The Mengzhou vessel separated from the rocket shortly after launch, before splashing down in the ocean at its designated landing spot, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

The first stage of the Long March-10 rocket also safely splashed down in its designated ocean landing spot, CASC said. The state-owned aerospace contractor developed both the rocket and the crewed spacecraft.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, video of the launch can be seen here. Jay also found two additional images, one showing the stage just before splashdown standing vertical (as shown in the picture to the right) and the other of the stage floating in the water just before it was picked up by a recovery vessel. According to comments at these tweets, it is speculated that the interstage unit that connected the capsule to the stage was either ejected at landing or was torn off when the stage hit the water.

This is a major achievement for China. It gets it closer to being able to use Mengzhou for longer missions to places like the Moon.

The modular Mengzhou spacecraft has two variants: a seven-astronaut near-Earth model designed to support the country’s Tiangong space station and a model with a smaller crew capacity for missions to the moon. The latter is expected to work in tandem with the Lanyue lunar surface lander, designed to carry two astronauts to the moon’s surface.

The soft splashdown of the Long March 10A first stage also gets China closer to its first reuse of a rocket.

I must note that this success is part of a larger story about China’s space industry that is not so hopeful.
» Read more

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China and SpaceX complete launches

2:04 pm

The pause in launches in the past week has now ceased, completely for SpaceX and partly for China.

Yesterday China completed its first launch in more than a week and only its second since it had two launch failures on January 17, 2026. It successfully launched its Shenlong X-37B copycat mini-reusable shuttle on its fourth mission, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

No word on how long Shenlong will remain in orbit. All China’s state-run press would reveal is that it is performing “technological verification” in orbit. That state-run press also said nothing about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

SpaceX today resumed launches after its own weeklong pause, caused as the company investigated why the upper stage on the February 2nd launch did not complete its de-orbit burn as planned. The company has released no information on the results of that investigation, but apparently it was satisfied with the results to resume launches. It successfully placed 25 more Starlink satellites in orbit today, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its 13th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The 2026 launch race:

15 SpaceX
7 China
2 Rocket Lab
1 Russia

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China launches Algerian satellite

10:23 am

China today successfully placed an Algerian “remote sensing” satellite into orbit, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. China’s state-run press also said little about the satellite, other than claiming it would be used for “land planning and disaster prevention and mitigation.” This however doesn’t match what “remote sensing” satellites usually do, which is military surveillance.

The 2026 launch race:

13 SpaceX
6 China
2 Rocket Lab

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China launches more satellites in its Guowang satellite constellation

8:57 am

China today successfully placed the 19th group of Guowang (SatNet) satellites into orbit, its Long March 12 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wencheng spaceport.

The lower stages of the rocket fell in the territorial waters of the Philippines, forcing that government to issue a warning to its citizens.

Previously I had read reports claiming Guowang was an internet-of-things constellation aiming to 13,000 satellites eventually. That was incorrect. This constellation is comparable to Starlink, providing internet access globally. Before today’s launch there were 137 Guowang satellites in orbit. China’s state-run press provided no information about the number of Guowang satellites launched today. All previous launches using the Long March 12 placed nine in orbit, which would bring the total in orbit to 146. According to the article at the link, however, the constellation now has 150 in orbit.

The 2026 launch race:

8 SpaceX
5 China

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China’s damaged Shenzhou-20 manned capsule successfully returned unmanned today

8:01 am

Shenzhou-20 after return
Click for original image.

China today finally brought its damaged Shenzhou-20 manned capsule back to Earth, having it touch down in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

All the text sources from China’s state-run press showed images like the one to the right, from a distance. Though one of the descent capsule’s windows is visible, and appears to have attracted a lot of attention from members of the recovery crew, it is impossible to see if this is the window that China says was hit by some space debris and damaged. Nor can we see the cracks China claimed were there that forced it to send up a rescue capsule to bring the crew back and return this capsule unoccupied.

BtB’s stringer Jay found two other tweets that China released on X. One focused entirely on the used spacesuit that was returned within the capsule, ignoring the capsule itself. The other showed just one image, showing a side of the capsule with no windows.

Why China has been so reluctant to release any images of the damaged window forces one to suspect they are hiding something, such as the cracks were not caused by an impact but by some issue with the capsule itself. This speculation could of course be completely wrong, but China’s secrecy is what generates it.

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SpaceX yesterday completed one launch while China had two launch failures

8:20 am

There were three launches attempts yesterday, though the two by China were both failures.

First, China’s Long March 3B rocket attempted a launch from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China but the rocket failed at some point. All that China’s state-run press said was that “an anomaly occurred during its flight” and “the cause of the failure is under investigation.” We therefore do not know when the failure occurred, or where any of the rocket stages crashed, inside China or elsewhere.

Next, China’s pseudo-company Galactic Energy attempted the first launch of its new Ceres-2 rocket, lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. Once again, China’s state-run press provided little information, stating merely that “an anomaly occurred during its flight.”

The Ceres-2, like its predecessor the Ceres-1, is a solid-fueled rocket, though its final stage upgrades the rocket with liquid fuel. Both are based on missile technology, which is why this pseudo-company is “pseudo,” as everything it does is closely supervised by the Chinese government.

Finally, SpaceX placed a National Reconnaissance Office classified satellite into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 2nd flight, landing back at Vandenberg. The two fairings in turn completed their 13th and 30th flights respectively.

The 2026 launch race:

7 SpaceX
4 China

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China launches four satellites for another Chinese constellation

8:41 am

The Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy early today successfully launched another four satellites in the Tianqi satellite constellation, its Ceres-1 solid-fueled rocket lifting off from a sea platform off the northeast coast of China.

This was the sixth launch for the Tianqi constellation, which apparently is an internet-of-things constellation. It has launched 41 satellites so far, though only 29 are presently operational, with 12 having had their orbits decay.

The 2026 launch race:

6 SpaceX
4 China

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The European Space Agency and China hold the first joint meeting in almost a decade

9:50 am

ESA logo

The European Space Agency (ESA) this week hosted the leaders of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in Paris, the first such joint meeting since 2017.

The meeting was co-chaired by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and CNSA Administrator Shan Zhongde. Both ESA and CNSA had unique achievements to share and discuss since the last time the heads of agencies met in person.

Both highlighted joint successes in space science, notably the Tianguan (Einstein Probe) launch with ESA hardware, and progress on the joint Smile mission, set to launch this year. Similarly, the two sides addressed the successful Chang’e-6 mission carrying ESA’s NILS instrument, ESA’s first experiment on the lunar surface. In the field of telemetry and tracking, both looked back on their long-term cooperation in supporting science and exploration missions. In discussing their respective space safety and Earth observation related programmes, the importance of cooperation to protect our planet and climate was recognised on both sides.

It was discussed, that building past progress, both sides in their respective institutional contexts would explore potential opportunities for further collaboration in areas such as Earth and space science.

Let me translate: We in Europe have found that our cooperative Soviet-style government-run projects with NASA (ISS, Mars Sample Return, and Lunar Gateway) are going away, and we need to find some other authoritarian nation we can partner with.

You see, the bureaucrats in Europe like their Soviet-style government-run space program, and are actually offended that the U.S. is shifting from that approach to the capitalism model, an independent industry run by private enterprise. Moreover, these bureaucrats at ESA are finding their own political support dwindling within the ESA’s member nations, many of whom are adopting the same private industry approach as the U.S.

Thus, rather than embrace freedom, competition, and capitalism — the principles that once made Europe great — they look to China now to help fund their government projects. How so very governmental of them!

It is likely some space projects will come of this, but if the U.S. remains steadfast in support of freedom and private enterprise, it will flow like a tidal wave over anything ESA and China develop.

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China launches classified military satellite in partnership with Algeria

9:30 am

China today successfully placed a classified military remote sensing satellite into orbit, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

China’s state-run press provided no update on where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. The story at the link, from China’s military, did provide this information about the satellite:

Developed by China Academy of Space Technology under China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the satellite will be used for land planning and disaster prevention and mitigation. The launch is part of the Algeria remote sensing satellite system program, a joint project between China Great Wall Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of CASC, and the Algerian Space Agency. Signed in July 2023, the agreement includes two optical remote sensing satellites, ground systems, training, and related support services.

The 2026 launch race:

6 SpaceX
3 China

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China launches twice from today different spaceports

5:02 pm

China finally entered the 2026 launch race today with two launches from two of its spaceports.

First, it placed a classified remote sensing satellite into orbit, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.

No word on where the rocket’S lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

About an hour later it launched the 18th group of Guowang (also Satnet) satellites into orbit, its Long March 8A lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport in south China.

Though the lower stages of this rocket fell in the ocean, they did so in the territorial waters of the Philippines, forcing its government to issue a warning to its citizens.

Though China’s state-run press provided no information about the number of Guowang satellites launched, all previous launches using the Long March 8A placed nine in orbit. Based on this guess, this internet-of-things constellation now has 137 satellites in orbit out of a planned 13,000.

The 2026 launch race:

5 SpaceX
2 China

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China claims it has launched and landed a new suborbital reusable spacecraft

10:05 am

Reports from China’s state-run press today and yesterday claim that a pseudo-company, CAS Space (wholly owned by a government agency) has successfully completed the first test flight and parachute recovery of a new small scale suborbital reusable spacecraft dubbed PH-1.

The vehicle lifted off at about 4 pm and reached an altitude of roughly 120 kilometers, passing the Karman line — commonly regarded as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space — before descending back to Earth. After re-entering the atmosphere, its recoverable payload cabin deployed a parachute at around 10 km and landed smoothly at a designated site, the company said.

CAS Space said the test validated key technologies, including re-entry deceleration, parachute recovery and precision landing control. Engineers also assessed the performance of critical components during the flight.

A handful of images were released yesterday, but none showed the recovered capsule or its landing.

It is probably that this test was as successful as China’s press claims. It is also possible that this reporting has been carefully designed to hide aspects of the flight that were a failure.

Once developed, CAS Space claims the spacecraft, also dubbed Lihong-1, could be used to provide experiments about 300 seconds of weightlessness. This is not much longer than the periods of weightlessness produced when flying in a “vomit comet” airplane. Moreover, this spacecraft appears too small for manned flights. A larger spacecraft would have to be developed for that purpose.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay for the link to the images.

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Comparing the global ground stations of China and the U.S.

10:49 am

Link here. The article is an excellent review of China’s ground stations located globally, noting how its network is far more limited that the United States, caused by a lack of trust of its intentions by foreign countries.

China currently has access to at least 18 overseas space facilities in Africa, Antarctica, Latin America, South Asia, and the South Pacific. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these countries might expel China’s space tracking and surveillance stations anytime soon. But the longevity of these sites is more precarious than those of the United States. Changing political conditions and concern that these sites may play a role in a conflict involving the United States could undermine China’s ability to maintain key parts of its overseas space tracking network.

The article then notes how China has recently lost stations in Australia, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic and has been forced to field a fleet of ocean-going satellite-tracking ships, similar to what the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.

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China proposes building two new satellite constellations, each with about 100,000 satellites

9:46 am

China has filed papers with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — the international licensing agency comparable to the U.S.’s FCC — to build two new satellite constellations, each with about 100,000 satellites that would be linked as one gigantic constellation.

The filings, submitted to the ITU in late December 2025, are designated CTC-1 (CHN2025-79441) and CTC-2 (CHN2025-79398), each covering 96,714 satellites in 3,660 orbital planes, according to documents posted in the Union’s “as-received” database.

CTC-1 includes both advance publication information (API) and a more detailed coordination request, reflecting progression through different stages of the ITU regulatory process for a single notional Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) system, while CTC-2 currently remains at the API-only stage. Both reference a “new operating agency” as a placeholder for their operating agencies.

Together, the pair represent one of the largest constellation filings ever made, highlighting the growing competition over orbital and spectrum resources.

Both filings appear to be very preliminary, and in fact appear to be an attempt by China to grab control of as much orbital territory and satellite spectrum as possible, to block others from access. Neither has been approved, and won’t be without a detailed review by the ITU.

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Chinese pseudo-company building 3/4 billion dollar rocket factory

9:07 am

Though the Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch has yet to launch any orbital rockets, it has announced it will spend $740 million on a factory for building its reusable rockets, intended to land on a platform at sea.

The 5.2 billion yuan ($740 million) project, led by Beijing-based space launch company Space Epoch, got underway on January 7. According to Hangzhou Daily, it will produce medium-to-large liquid-fueled rockets capable of reuse, high payloads, low cost and sea recovery. The facility, when ready, will manufacture up to 25 of these rockets a year. “A reusable rocket is like a taxi, satellites are the passengers, and a constellation of satellites is a busload of tourists,” Wei Yi, founder and chairman of Space Epoch, told local newspaper Hangzhou Daily.

The cost of space launch vehicles for mainstream rockets in China is approximately 80,000 to 100,000 yuan per kilogram ($11,000 to $14,000), Wei Yi explains. With Space Epoch’s “stainless steel + liquid oxygen and methane” solution, the cost is expected to be slashed to 20,000 yuan per kilogram, he adds.

The only flight tests that Space Epoch has publicly admitted to was a successful hop of a small scale Grasshopper-type prototype in May 2025. This new construction project suggests it has been able to raise the money to build its full scale rocket. I suspect some if not all of that money came from the Chinese government.

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SpaceX to do a major orbital reconfiguration of its Starlink constellation

9:03 am

According to a X post yesterday by Michael Nicholls, SpaceX’s Starlink engineering vice-president, the company over the next year will be lowering the orbits of more than 4,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, in order to allow the company to more quickly de-orbit them if they fail.

We are lowering all Starlink satellites orbiting at ~550 km to ~480 km (~4400 satellites) over the course of 2026. The shell lowering is being tightly coordinated with other operators, regulators, and USSPACECOM.

Lowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways. As solar mininum approaches, atmospheric density decreases which means the ballistic decay time at any given altitude increases – lowering will mean a >80% reduction in ballistic decay time in solar minimum, or 4+ years reduced to a few months. Correspondingly, the number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500 km, reducing the aggregate likelihood of collision.

Nicholls notes that it presently has only two dead satellites in the present fleet of 9,000 satellites, but decided to do this move regardless, as it also apparently will reduce collision risks with other satellites as well.

Not surprisingly, China’s state-run press and our anti-capitalism propaganda press immediately tried to give China credit for this change, while lambasting SpaceX. That China is contributing to the risk of collision with its own multiple giant satellite constellations and is doing nothing on its own is apparently irrelevant to both. Our nice of them.

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China launches two satellites for “new technology verification for space target detection”

7:55 pm

China today successfully launched two technology test satellites designed to do “space target detection”, its Long March 7A rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

China’s state-run press provided no other information. It also appears the drop zones for the rocket’s lower stages were once again in Philippino waters, requiring that government to warn its citizens to avoid those zones and subsequent any rocket debris.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
90 China (a new record)
18 Rocket Lab
17 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 150.

At this moment no other launches are scheduled before the end of the year, thus closing out the 2025 year in rocketry. I will publish my annual global report in the next few days. Stay tuned.

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China launches Earth mapping satellite

8:20 am

China yesterday successfully placed what it called a “geographic mapping” satellite, its Long March 4B rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

Its state-run press provided no additional information about the satellite, nor did it provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
89 China (a new record)
18 Rocket Lab
17 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 149.

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China launches weather satellite

8:35 pm

China today (December 27 in China) successfully placed a new Fengyun-4 satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xinchang spaceport in southwest China.

China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. This Fengyun-4 satellite is the third in a new constellation of seven upgraded weather satellites.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
88 China (a new record)
18 Rocket Lab
16 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 147.

One comment

China launches nine more satellites in Guowang constellation

12:18 pm

Last night China successfully placed nine more satellites for the Guowang (or Satnet) internet-of-things constellation, its Long March 8A rocket lifting off from its Wenchang coastal spaceport, The constellation now has 128 satellites in orbit out of a planned 13,000. Though the rocket’s lower stages all fell in the ocean, some landed within the Philippines, once again requiring that government to warn its citizens to avoid the drop zones.

China’s last night also scrubbed a launch of its solid-fueled Smart Dragon-3 (also Jielong-3) rocket, set to lift off from a launch platform off the coast of northeastern China. The launch was rescheduled for December 28th. China also had a Long March 3B launched scheduled for this morning, but no news about that launch as yet been published.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
87 China (a new record)
18 Rocket Lab
16 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 146.

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China’s Long March 12A launches but fails to land the first stage

9:21 pm

China’s new Long March 12A reusable rocket completed its first launch today (December 23 in China), lifting off from the Jiuquan space spaceport in northwest China. The attempt to softly land the first stage vertically at a landing pad down range however failed.

According to one report, the rocket’s upper stage reached orbit, but this remains unconfirmed. A Google-translation of this Chinese state-run report confirmed the failure of the first stage:

The rocket lifted off successfully after ignition, and its flight appeared normal during the visual observation phase. However, reports from the recovery site indicated an anomaly during the first stage’s re-entry, resulting in a “mushroom cloud” formation, and the successful recovery of the first stage was not achieved.

Several Chinese outlets showed the same image of that cloud. This is the second unsuccessful attempt by China this month to land a first stage, the first being the December 2nd attempt by the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace’s Zhuque-3 rocket. The Long March 12A is built by the government, so there is no make-believe company involved.

UPDATE: China’s state-run press has confirmed the upper stage reached orbit.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
86 China (a new record)
18 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 143.

4 comments

China launches “communications technology test” satellite

8:59 am

China early today successfully launched a “communications technology test” satellite, its Long March 5 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

As is routine for China’s state-run press, little information about the satellite was released, simply saying it will be “used to carry out multi-band and high-speed communication technology validation tests.” That China used its most powerful Long March 5 rocket to launch it suggests it is a hefty satellite possibly placed in geosynchronous orbit. Or maybe it is a variation of AST SpaceMobile’s giant Bluebird satellites used for direct cell phone use.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

168 SpaceX
85 China (a new record)
17 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 168 to 141.

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