Author: starpathwp-production
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China’s Tianwen-2 Reaches Earth’s Quasi-Moon, Captures First Images of Kamo’oalewa
The China National Space Administration’s probe first detected Kamo’oalewa on June 6, 2026, after undergoing multiple orbital adjustments in deep space. The asteroid orbits the sun in a path nearly identical to Earth’s, moving in near-synchronous motion that makes it a relatively accessible celestial body. Kamo’oalewa has an average diameter of only about 41 meters…
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China’s Commercial Space Industry Reaches Its “TEMU Moment”
Satellites have traditionally been among the world’s most expensive assets. Building, launching, and operating a spacecraft often required investments measured in millions of dollars, limiting access to governments, military organizations, and large corporations. China’s commercial space industry is now attempting to change that equation. Driven by automated manufacturing, expanding launch capacity, and large-scale satellite production,…
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Booster 20 Fires All 33 Engines for Record 24 Seconds Ahead of Flight 13
Booster 20 spent one month inside Mega Bay 1 before rolling out to Pad 2 for the static fire, in what could have been its only rollout to the launch site. SpaceX placed the booster on the launch mount on the afternoon of July 9, then spent the night hooking up the quick disconnects and…
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China Recovers Long March 10B Booster at Sea in Reusability First
The feat came on the debut flight of the Long March 10B, which lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on Friday at 12:15 a.m. EDT. CASC, the main contractor for China’s space program, described the mission as a historic breakthrough in reusable rocket technology that will lay a solid foundation for accelerating…
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China recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it
China’s sprawling state-owned rocket developer, maker of the country’s Long March rocket family, announced it recovered a reusable orbital-class booster for the first time Friday in the South China Sea. The milestone mission began with the liftoff of a Long March 10B rocket from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China’s southernmost…
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Elon Musk’s Mars illusion
Elon Musk takes a bow at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in May 2020 after the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, which carried two astronauts to the International Space Station, about 250 miles up, and a world away from Mars. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) Ever since its founding, SpaceX has fixed upon a…
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China’s Long March 10B Nails First Net Catch at Sea
Is China’s Net-Catch Booster Recovery a Viable Third Architecture? China’s state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) recovered an orbital-class booster for the first time on July 11, 2026, catching the Long March 10B first stage in a tensioned cable net mounted to an offshore vessel — a recovery method distinct from both SpaceX’s…
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Pulse Space Secures $40 Million Space Force Contract for Laser-Based Space Power Technology
Pulse Space, a provider of laser-based remote power and situational awareness systems for space, announced a $40 million contract award from the United States Space Force for technology development, the largest award in the company’s history. “This historic $40 million award is a defining moment for Pulse Space, and I am exceptionally proud of our…
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EO Satellites Beat Telecom in European Space Sales
Has Earth Observation Displaced Telecom as Europe’s Top Space Revenue Segment? Yes — and by a measurable margin. Earth observation satellite manufacturing sales surpassed telecommunications systems by 24% in 2025, according to Eurospace’s latest Facts and Figures report, presented July 7 in Milan. The shift marks the end of telecom’s historical dominance as the primary…
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China Lands Orbital Rocket First Time in Net at Sea
Does China Now Have a Reusable Orbital Rocket? China recovered an orbital rocket’s first stage for the first time on July 10, 2026 — and did it in a way no one has tried before. The Long March 10B’s maiden flight lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site at 12:15 p.m. Beijing time,…