SPACE reports China aims to launch its Chang’e 7 moon mission on Aug. 24 to send a lander, a rover, a hopper and a wide range of science experiments to the lunar south.
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Tag: China
China Marks Return to Flight with Two Successful Long March Launches
SPACE reports China’s space program has returned to flight after an Aug. 10 Long March 7A rocket explosion, launching both a Long March 12 and a Long March 2C rocket…
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China’s Gravity-1 Rocket Launches Nine Satellites in Record Sea-Based Mission
SPACE reports Orienspace’s Gravity-1, the world’s most powerful solid rocket, aced its third-ever mission on Tuesday (July 21), launching nine satellites to orbit, “from the deck of a ship stationed off the coast of Shanghai.”
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Video
China launches its Gravity-1 rocket from sea (Launch at the 00:08 mark).
New China TV; YouTube
China Achieves First Orbital Booster Recovery With Long March 10B
Space News reports, “China launched its Long March 10B rocket early Friday and successfully recovered the first stage, marking a huge step for the country’s reusable rocket efforts. The first Long March 10B rocket lifted off at 12:15 a.m. Eastern (0415 UTC) July 10 from Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on the southern island province of Hainan.”
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Video
Long March-10B first launch and landing (Launch occurs at the 00:43 mark)
SciNews; YouTube
Report Links China’s Rocket Stage Abandonment to Rising Orbital Collision Risks
Breaking Defense reports, “China has been abandoning used launcher rocket stages in low Earth orbit (LEO) at an ever-increasing pace, putting both military and commercial satellites in that crowded orbital regime at greater risk of serious debris-creating collisions, according to a new report.”
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China’s Qianfan Constellation Reaches 200 Satellites in Orbit
Space News reports, “Construction of the Shanghai-led Qianfan constellation continued to accelerate this week with a pair of Long March launches, following on from two recent experimental flights. China launched Long March 6A and Long March 8 rockets Thursday and Friday respectively, adding 36 satellites to the project led by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), or Spacesail.”
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China Ramps Up Commercial Space Race with Lijian-2 “Super Factory”
Aviation News reports, “China has reached a pivotal milestone in its commercial aerospace ambitions with the full completion of a state-of-the-art ‘super factory’ in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province.”
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Video
China launches a Lijian-2 Y1 carrier rocket on March 30, 2026 (Launch occurs at the 0:01 mark)
ShanghaiEye; YouTube; Framegrab
SpaceX and China Power Record-Breaking Year for Orbital Launches
Space News reports, “Orbital launch activity set another annual record in 2025, although future growth may depend on factors different from those that fueled the recent surge. There were 324 orbital launch attempts worldwide in 2025, according to a SpaceNews analysis of open-source data. The total excludes suborbital launches, such as five test flights of SpaceX’s Starship that did not reach orbit by design, as well as three launches of the HASTE variant of Rocket Lab’s Electron.”
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China Temporarily Without Emergency Launch Capabilities Following Space Station Lifeboat Crisis
Space News reports, “China could be without emergency launch capability to Tiangong space station for months, leaving no rapid-response option for any new crisis following the Shenzhou-20 incident.”
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Boeing Delivers First of Two 777 Jets to China’s Suparna Airlines
Reuters reports, “Boeing delivered on Wednesday the first of two 777 freighters ordered by China’s Suparna Airlines, the U.S. planemaker said on Thursday via its official WeChat account. It marks the first new-build freighter handed to a Chinese carrier since the U.S.-China tariff war began.”
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