THE LAUNCH PAD
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The Shenzhou 20 mission will lift off aboard a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 5:17 a.m. EDT (0917 GMT; 5:17 p.m. Beijing time).
Chinese startup InfinAstro has secured early funding to enhance China's growing commercial on-orbit servicing capabilities.
A team of Chinese space engineers has revealed the behind-the-scenes struggles and rapid-response ingenuity that saved two lunar satellites stranded in Earth orbit after a launch anomaly, transforming a near-total loss into a landmark mission for deep space operations and intersatellite communications.
China is setting its sights far beyond Earth orbit with a newly revealed long-term roadmap for deep space exploration centered on the search for extraterrestrial life and understanding planetary habitability.
Beijing-based launch company Cosmoleap, formally known as Beijing Dahang Transition Technology Co., Ltd., has announced that it has raised over 100 million yuan (more than $14 million USD) to support the development of its Yueqian reusable rocket and an advanced recovery system modeled after SpaceX's "chopstick" tower landing method.
China is gearing up for a crucial milestone in its lunar exploration program, with the first flight of the Long March 10A rocket scheduled for 2026. The debut of this rocket marks an essential step in China’s ambitious goal of sending astronauts to the moon by 2030.
China has unveiled an ambitious long-term roadmap to guide its space science programs through 2050, with a headline-grabbing plan to collect a sample of the Venusian atmosphere by 2035.
On August 6, 2024, China marked a significant milestone in its space ambitions with the successful launch of the first batch of 18 satellites for the Thousand Sails low Earth orbit (LEO) communications megaconstellation. However, the achievement has also raised concerns, as the launch resulted in a debris field along the orbit, potentially threatening other spacecraft.
The mission, originally slated for 2025, has been rescheduled to launch in 2027. This change comes with a new target: the asteroid 2015 XF261.
China is preparing for the inaugural launch of its ambitious G60 Starlink megaconstellation, a project aiming to deploy over 12,000 satellites into low Earth orbit.
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