Onboard today’s CZ-2D are 4 tech-demo satellites for China’s next wave of space science through 2030:
• HongMeng — 10 sats in lunar orbit, ultra-long wavelength view of the early Universe
• Kuafu-2 — first imaging of the Sun’s poles
• Earth 2.0 — hunt for real Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars from L2
• eXTP — X-ray timing & polarimetry of extreme physics
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🚀 Liftoff at 11:41UTC November 11 from Jiuquan, Long March 2D Y108 launched a group of 4 TanLuZhe science demo satellites for CAS.
🤔 Long March 12A launch + recovery attempt again
> This month?
> Before year end?
> Later?
🚀 Successful orbital insertion on Flight 1, but trailing private rival LandSpace in sticking the landing: China’s state-backed Long March 12A is now gearing up for its second orbital launch and booster recovery attempt this November.
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ISRO has completed design review and started hardware fabrication for Venus Orbiter Mission to study the surface and atmosphere of Venus.
Official target is still March 2028 — which feels very aggressive to me.
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🚀 Liftoff at 11:41UTC November 11 from Jiuquan, Long March 2D Y108 launched a group of 4 TanLuZhe science demo satellites for CAS.
CAS Space has several launches running behind schedule right now.
Still very much looking forward to the Kinetica-1 sea-launch debut and the Lihong-2 suborbital flight.
🇮🇳 After NVS-03’s success, ISRO just completed a 200 s flight-acceptance test on the cryogenic engine for GSLV F19, which is set to launch the next NavIC satellite, NVS-04, next year.
Steady progress.
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Nebula-2's 2nd stage is fully expendable and does not re-enter or recover like Starship, so the interstage is not needed as upper-stage engines protection.
It can therefore remain attached to the first stage to be recovered together, with stage-separation plane located high above the hot-staging vents and providing mounting volume for grid fins above the vent line.
But I'm also curious if this design pose challenges on the linking truss structure, as this arrangement routes aerodynamic and inertial loads from the grid fins and interstage through the it during descent.
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Take a look at that interstage design, cool to see the gridfins on top of the hotstage vent, first one to do it if I remember it correctly
Deep Blue Aerospace's Nebula-2 model on display.
Falcon-9 class, 5m stainless steel body, hot staging, tower catch.
🚀 Deep Blue Aerospace is making serious progress on heavy iron. The company just manufactured and rolled out the 5-meter stainless-steel first-stage propellant tanks—both cryogenic liquid oxygen and kerosene—for its reusable Nebula-2.
At 5 meters across, this is the widest rocket body currently in fabrication across China’s commercial space sector. With the second-stage tank already delivered, a Starship-style catch tower spotted under construction, and the 130-tonne Thunder-RS engine deep into hot-fire testing, the hardware is converging fast. Looking forward to seeing how quickly they turn this steel into flight reality.
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A diver in his 50s died of cardiac arrest while working underwater to recover the chain of a launch-vehicle barge in the waters near Marado, Jeju, South Korea.
The incident now raises questions about whether the GYUB test launch can still go ahead on schedule.
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It’s kind of unfair to put an engine that hasn’t been revealed publicly alongside the masterpiece SpaceX Raptor 3.
So, 👇 🇺🇸 Raptor 1 v. 🇨🇳 CASC YF-215
Like Musk said: first thing you should try is to create a working prototype.
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Vintage photo: Long March 2C at Jiuquan
A vintage photo of Long March 3 before the AsiaSat 1 mission on April 7, 1990—China’s maiden international commercial orbital launch.
AsiaSat 1 was originally Westar 6, which was stranded in a useless orbit. It was retrieved by Space Shuttle mission STS-51-A in November 1984, brought back to Earth in Discovery’s cargo bay, refurbished by Hughes, and then sent back into GTO atop this Chinese booster.
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Near year end — wondering if Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 is returning soon.
SPACE-PIONEER just released the Tianlong-3 failure report, which probably hints another launch attempt soon.
The report: LOX vented during ascent was aspirated into the aft end, leading secondary combustion of the first stage turnbine exhaust, which caused damage to the base thermal protection skirt. Hot plume gases were ingested into the first-stage aft compartment and ignite an internal fire, ultimately leading to a flight anomaly.
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Epsilon S upgrades all three solid stages, and the liquid kick stage is now the default.
More performance and flexibility on the refreshed solid rocket.
JAXA has completed the Epsilon S launch rehearsal just several hours ago.
Demo flight now targeted for Japanese FY2026 (through March 2027).
Video from 読売新聞
JAXA has completed the Epsilon S launch rehearsal just several hours ago.
Demo flight now targeted for Japanese FY2026 (through March 2027).
Video from 読売新聞
JAXA is getting ready to debut Epsilon S — the refreshed solid-rocket Epsilon.
First demo flight: 400 kg, 2 m Satellite Laser Ranging demonstrator to 500 km SSO.
JAXA is getting ready to debut Epsilon S — the refreshed solid-rocket Epsilon.
First demo flight: 400 kg, 2 m Satellite Laser Ranging demonstrator to 500 km SSO.
The 6th Epsilon rocket made liftoff at 00:50:32UTC, but the self-destruct system activated after 3rd stage separation. Mission failed.
China has recorded 80 orbital launches after Long March 12 Y11.
Hitting 100 in 2026 for the first time now looks unlikely.
After checking more slides, the Long March 12B engine-swap story looks like a typo.
YF-102 (open cycle) is still evolving — v3.0 already.
Thrust: 900kN / 1000kN (vacuum)
Specific impulse: 2764m/s / 3243m/s
Throttling: 50~105%
TWR: 130
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So CASC has decided to re-engine the Long March 12B, replacing the kerolox YF-102 engines with methalox YF-209.
Despite the propellant switch, the rocket retains the Long March 12B designation.
(slide translated by AI)
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Correction: the recent slide shows 203,000 mega-constellation satellites through 2034.
Same slide reiterates the following timeline:
• Dec 2027 — CZ-3B asteroid defense test
• 2028 — CZ-5 Tianwen-3 Mars sample return
• 2030 — CZ-5 Tianwen-4 Jupiter
• 2049 — Edge of the solar system
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Why China is building so many REUSABLE rockets:
• Long March 9 still ~10 years away
• ~206,000 mega-constellation satellites targeted through 2030
• Low pads turnover and booster refurb rate
They’re trying to do Starship-scale jobs with Falcon 9-class vehicles.
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Why China is building so many REUSABLE rockets:
• Long March 9 still ~10 years away
• ~206,000 mega-constellation satellites targeted through 2030
• Low pads turnover and booster refurb rate
They’re trying to do Starship-scale jobs with Falcon 9-class vehicles.
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Perspective: SpaceX has built just over 100 Falcon 9 boosters in its entire history.
By comparison: CASC’s Shanghai commercial factory is designed for 80 rockets a year — and 150 a year long-term.
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I don't think I've seen any shot of rocket liftoff by camera mounted on the TEL. This footage of Kinetica-2 could be epic if the erector retracts right when the rocket lifts off pad.
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👀 Kinetica-2 Y2 liftoff compilation just dropped.
Multiple angles of the three-core stack leaving the pad — worth a watch.
