China in Space

The Tianlong-3 Y1 launch vehicle towards the end of assembly at the Zhangjiagang manufacturing facility sometime in 2025. | Image: Space Pioneer Five months ago, on April 3rd, Space Pioneer’s to-be-reusable two-stage Tianlong-3 launch vehicle performed its

A render of a Geely Future Mobility Constellation satellite in Earth orbit providing connectivity services. | Image: Geespace / Geely Holding On September 7th, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (中华人民共和国工业和信息化部) released its ‘15th Fiv…

The Long March 4B Y78 vehicle lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 10th 2026. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Lifting off at 17:00 pm China Standard Time (09:00 am Universal Coordinated Time) on Sep…

A worker holds a flag for the Long March 8A pre-flight testing team while the Long March 8A Y10 vehicle is lifted onto Commercial Launch Pad 1 in August 2026. | Image: China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology 2026 has, so far, been a great year for Chin…

Solar panels and the shadow of the Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars for the Tianwen-1 mission in 2021. | Image: China National Space Administration During the 2026 International Deep Space Exploration Conference, or Tiandu Forum (2026年深空探测（天都）国际会议)1, a

The Kinetica-1 Y17 vehicle in the South China Sea for testing and trials in August 2026 ahead of a first sea-based launch mission. | Image: CAS Space A handful of weeks from today, CAS Space will perform their first sea launch mission of a Kinetica-1 laun…

A render of NASA’s CAPSTONE 12U CubeSat in lunar orbit with its solar panels deployed. | Image: NASA / Daniel Rutter On September 4th, China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (深空探测实验室) and the International Deep Space Exploration Association (国际深空探测学会)1…

Models of a Long March 7 (left), a fully reusable Long March 9 (center), and the Long March 10 Moon rocket (right) on display outside one of Wenchang’s space tourism centers. | Image: Wenchang International Aerospace City From August 24th to 26th, the 2026

A promotional render of the Geely Future Mobility Constellation orbiting Earth above the eastern Pacific. | Image: Geespace / Geely Holding On August 20th, automaker Geely’s (吉利汽车) space subsidiary Geespace announced through its various social media chann…

STAR.VISION Aerospace Co-Founder Noor Fan (second from the left), U.S.

An image of the China-Nepal border area, with Gyirong Port at the center, days ahead of catastrophic flooding. | Image: MinoSpace August 26th saw catastrophic flash flooding hit large parts of Nepal and the country’s border with Xizang Autonomous Region (…

Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1 Y1 vehicle lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 1st 2026. | Image: Galactic Energy From its dedicated launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1 lifted off for its…

The Long March 5 Y14 launch vehicle with the Chang’e 7 spacecraft during its rollback to the vehicle assembly building on August 24th 2026. | Image: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand After an initial delay into the September or October…

The Kinetica-2 Y2 launch vehicle near the end of production work at the Guangzhou factory in August 2026. | Image: CAS Space With a trio of rocket-related announcements this month, commercial launch leader CAS Space is about to have two launch vehicles fl…

The ‘main’ gate to the Shanghai Spaceport site in August 2026 when production officially began. | Image: Minhang District Development Zone As part of municipal government plans to be a leading space hub for launch vehicle production, satellite manufacturi…

Zhu Yangzhu emerging from the Tianhe modules airlock on August 28th to perform the Shenzhou-23 missions first spacewalk. | Image: China Manned Space Agency Earlier today, August 28th, the Shenzhou-23 crew performed their first spacewalk outside of the Tia…

A graphic showing DRO-A in lunar space and its relevant hardware onboard along with the equipment used on Earth. | Image: Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization Science and Technology Daily (科技日报) reported on August 26th, citing informati…

A technician working on a ‘Kinastra’ upper-stage in the second half of 2026. | Image: CAS Space Builder of the Kinetica series of launch vehicles, CAS Space, announced on August 18th that its ‘Kinastra (力巡)’ upper-stage has passed another set of testing m…

The Long March 6C Y1 vehicle departing from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on August 25th 2026. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation At 11:21 am China Standard Time (03:21 am Universal Coordinated Time) on August 25th, a Long M…

This week aboard the Tiangong Space Station has been fairly quiet, with the schedules for Zhu Yangzhu (朱杨柱)1, Li Jiaying (黎家盈)2, and Zhang Zhiyuan (张志远)3 mostly consisting of maintaining their fitness levels and conducting microbial sampling while maintai…

A view of the Long March 5 Y14’s fairing, where Chang’e 7 is kept safe, and its second-stage during rollout to Launch Complex 101 on August 19th 2026. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Atop of a Long March 5 on August 19th, the l…