China

Learn more about Chinese space ambitions and their future goals for reusable spaceplanes!

Mar 27, 2024 • 5 mins

In the early hours of the 20th of March, a Long March 8 rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 2 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site. Onboard the rocket were three satellites bound for the Moon. The three satellites are Queqiao-2, Tiandu-1, and Tiandu-2. The Long March 8 launch vehicle

Mar 20, 2024 • 4 mins

Today, the 26th of February, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, CASC, released its 'blue paper' outlining China's space goals for the coming year. The 'blue paper' from CASC also noted that 2024 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People&

Feb 26, 2024 • 3 mins

Early on the 24th of February, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that it had selected the names for its two spacecraft that will be used for its crewed lunar exploration program. The applications had been open since August and ran until late 2023 with over two-thousand submissions received!

Feb 24, 2024 • 5 mins

Over the past decade, China has routinely been the second most prolific launcher of orbital rockets delivering thousands of satellites and spacecraft to space. To achieve this feat, the country has four launch sites inside its territory as well as sea-based launch-supporting platforms. But what are these launch sites and

Feb 20, 2024 • 7 mins

Disclaimer: This article may take a while to load as where possible a relevant image is used. As of the 24th of January 2024, China's Tiangong Space Station has surpassed one-thousand days in space! The space station was constructed in three launches, starting in late April of 2021.

Jan 27, 2024 • 12 mins

Early on the 23rd of January, CAS Space launched its first mission of the year carrying five satellites atop of its Kinetica-1 rocket. The Kinetica-1 rocket lifted off from Launch Area 130 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and flew to a sun-synchronous orbit of the Earth. The five satellites

Jan 23, 2024 • 4 mins

A Long March 7 lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Wednesday the 17th of January at 22:27 pm Beijing Time. The rocket was carrying the Tianzhou 7 cargo spacecraft to low Earth orbit where it chased down the Tiangong Space Station. The Tianzhou 7 docked to

Jan 17, 2024 • 4 mins

Disclaimer: Translations from Chinese in this article may not be entirely accurate. China currently has plans to land a crew on the surface of the Moon by 2030 but how do they plan to achieve this goal? And what spacecraft and rockets will be used? The goal was announced to

Jan 12, 2024 • 11 mins

Aerospace startup OrienSpace conducted the maiden flight of its Gravity-1 launch vehicle today, the 11th of January. The launch vehicle lifted off from its sea launch platform at 13:30 pm, Beijing Time, off the coast of Haiyang, located in the Shandong province. The Gravity-1 rocket carried three Yunyao-1 weather

Jan 11, 2024 • 2 mins

Recently the China National Space Administration announced that the Chang'e 6 lunar spacecraft had arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Wednesday, the 10th of January. Parts of the spacecraft arrived in two military aircraft at Haikou, the capital of the Hainan province, before being transported to

Jan 10, 2024 • 4 mins

On the 9th of January at 15:03 pm, Beijing Time, a Long March 2C lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center carrying the Einstein Probe to a 600-kilometer low Earth orbit. The Einstein Probe is believed to weigh 1,450 kilograms and be roughly the size of an

Jan 9, 2024 • 3 mins

It has been over five years since the Chang'e 4 lunar lander landed on the far side of the Moon. The lunar landing occurred at 02:26 am Coordinated Universal Time on the 3rd of January 2019 touching down the Von Kármán crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

Jan 5, 2024 • 3 mins