Tag: China
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China taikonaut trio arrives at the Tiangong space station
The taikonauts of the Shenzhou-19 mission meet their counterparts from Shenzhou-18 onboard the Tiangong space station several hours after lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. Image: CNSA via CCTV livestream Three of China’s taikonauts completed their journey to the Tiangong space station to begin the country’s eighth long-duration spaceflight. Commander Cai…
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Rocket Report: Sneak peek at the business end of New Glenn; France to fly FROG
Welcome to Edition 7.17 of the Rocket Report! Next week marks 10 years since one of the more spectacular launch failures of this century. On October 28, 2014, an Antares rocket, then operated by Orbital Sciences, suffered an engine failure six seconds after liftoff from Virginia and crashed back onto the pad in a fiery…
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Launch Roundup: SpaceX launches 400th orbital flight; Blue Origin, China launch missions
Blue Origin tested its second human-rated New Shepard capsule this week, which had been delayed twice since the start of the month. The week has also seen two launches from China while a fourth flight of the Japanese H3 rocket carrying a communications satellite for the Japanese military has now been delayed until next week.…
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Launch Roundup: Europa Clipper launches, Starlink launches return
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) recent decision to clear SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for a return to all flights paved the way for a busy week of launches. Before Falcon 9 returned to flying regular Starlink missions, though, a Falcon Heavy launch with NASA’s Europa Clipper mission started the week off. Following Europa Clipper’s launch, SpaceX…
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Launch Roundup: Starship flies, booster caught
SpaceX flew the Starship-Super Heavy on Sunday, Oct. 13. This was the fifth test flight of the full Starship-Super Heavy stack and the first attempt at catching the booster. On Friday, Oct. 11, SpaceX Falcon 9 missions were released from the hold imposed on them while an investigation into the anomaly with the second stage…
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Launch Roundup: NASA Crew-9 flies half-empty, Starlink and Chinese launches continue
NASA and SpaceX’s launch of the Crew-9 mission took center stage this week. The launch of two new International Space Station crew members took place on Saturday from the recently crew-certified Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS). Meanwhile, in California, another Falcon 9 lifted the only scheduled Starlink…
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Rocket Report: China leaps into rocket reuse; 19 people are currently in orbit
Welcome to Edition 7.11 of the Rocket Report! Outside of companies owned by American billionaires, the most imminent advancements in reusable rockets are coming from China’s quasi-commercial launch industry. This industry is no longer nascent. After initially relying on solid-fueled rocket motors apparently derived from Chinese military missiles, China’s privately funded launch firms are testing…
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With NASA’s plan faltering, China knows it can be first with Mars sample return
China plans to launch two heavy-lift Long March 5 rockets with elements of the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission in 2028, the mission’s chief designer said Thursday. In a presentation at a Chinese space exploration conference, the chief designer of China’s robotic Mars sample return project described the mission’s high-level design and outlined how the…
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Space Command chief says dialogue with China is too often a one-way street
The head of US Space Command said Wednesday he would like to see more transparency from the Chinese government on space debris, especially as one of China’s newer rockets has shown a propensity for breaking apart and littering low-Earth orbit with hundreds of pieces of space junk. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of US Space Command,…
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Launch Roundup: Polaris Dawn aims high, Starlink launches continue
A total of five flights were on the worldwide launch manifest for this week. Most notable was to be the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 with the Polaris Dawn mission. A modified Crew Dragon capsule will carry four astronauts into the highest orbit a crewed mission has flown in since the Gemini missions. In…