China

After a few weeks of featuring at least one big name launch that makes writing these articles easy, we’re back to more standard communication satellites. Two launches from SpaceX are on the schedule with a third possible over the weekend. China, not to be left out is also scheduled for a Long March 5 with an unknown payload on top.

We have two firsts for 2024 this week. First SpaceX is set to launch the Axiom-3 mission on Wednesday as the first human spaceflight mission of the year. Then, just a few hours later, Rocket Lab plans to make its 2024 debut with a Electron launch out of New Zealand.

While it looks like a light week for launches from SpaceX, over in the Pacific Ocean, China will be busy launching several rockets from around its country. Also, Japan will chime in with a rare H-II launch.

With New Years coming up at the end of the week, we now know what will end up being the final rocket launches of 2023. SpaceX‘s Falcon Heavy is also set to return this week after a lengthly delay. Meanwhile, China is back with a flurry of more launches, but India looks to be taking the crown as the final launch of 2023.

Another packed week between SpaceX and China launching almost every day this week. The expected Falcon Heavy launch from this weekend is now today (Monday) but that’s not the only RTLS mission this week. This Friday a Falcon 9 will fly and have its booster return to LZ-1 as well.

Hidden in the bunch will be the return to flight of Rocket Lab‘s Electron rocket!

This week we are tracking the possibility of seeing seven launches from both the United States and China. On the US side, all of those launches will be coming from SpaceX with three being Starlink and one being a Falcon Heavy for the Space Force.

This week is a rather slow one with two launches scheduled for SpaceX‘s Falcon 9, yes they’re for Starlink. However, pending regulatory approval, the week could finish with the second launch of the company’s Starship rocket.

China has embarked on a new era in its space exploration endeavors by launching the youngest-ever crew of astronauts, known as taikonauts, to its Tiangong space station, intended to cement the country’s position in the global space race. Shenzhou-17 or “divine vessel” took off October 26 with three crew members atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

This week is an exciting week if you follow Chinese human spaceflight as we are set for the next crewed rotation launch for China’s Tiangong Space Station. Russia will also see a launch this week and over the weekend, we’ll see a double header from SpaceX.

China has announced bold plans for a manned lunar base tucked away in a permanently shadowed area on the Moon, which local media says will begin construction as soon as this decade.

Since 2011, NASA has been barred from using any government funds (which, as a government-funded agency, is pretty much all of it) to cooperate with China. The agency’s Administrator agrees to continue this. So for an agency whose goal is to explore space and be as apolitical as possible, should they try to begin working with China?

If you thought last week was empty on the launch schedule, this week looks to be even worse for those wanting to see more launches. Right now, on the schedule, we only see one launch from North America or Europe, to no one’s surprise, that is SpaceX.

In 2019, SpaceX launched its first batch of 60 Starlink satellites. Since then, there have been two sides of the mega constellation debate: those that support and fear them. While I wish I could answer which of those sides is correct, I can only provide the latter more to worry about because China is entering stage right.

I really hope this isn’t your first time learning about the three Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) currently on orbit Earth at their nation’s space station. However, earlier this week, two taikonauts performed a spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station but to no fan fair from its space agency.

An unknown rocket stage impacted the Moon this year completely unplanned after launching a payload into space possibly back in 2015. First, it was believed to be from SpaceX, but now it is thought to be Chinese. New photos of the rocket’s impact site on the Moon could point us toward the true owner.

We’ve been following a rocket upper stage that is headed for a crash landing on the Moon for nearly a month now. While the object has been observed from Earth, and its collision time has been estimated at around 7:30 a.m. on March 4, the actual identity of the rocket stage has come into question. Now a spokesperson for China has denied that the object is one of the country’s rocket upper stages.

News sites around the world, including us, reported on a Falcon 9 upper stage that was on a collision course with the Moon, with an impact expected on March 4. Except… new evidence (or rather, reobserving old evidence) points to the fact that this rocket stage is not actually the Falcon 9 upper stage from the DSCOVR mission, but instead a rocket stage from the Long March 3C that launched China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission.

Since 2000 humanity has had a constant presence of individuals orbiting the Earth onboard the International Space Station. With the rise of commercial opportunities to reach for the stars, and other nations begin their crew launch programs, when is the next crewed launch?

China’s second crewed mission of the year, Shenzhou-13, has arrived at the Tianhe space station core module.

China‘s national space agency rolled a Long March 2F rocket with a Shenzhou spacecraft on top to their launch site at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. We expect this to be preparation for the Shenzhou-13 mission launching this week.

Perseverance, Ingenuity, and all the other American bots on Mars now have company. China became the second-ever country to successfully land a rover on the red planet today. Zhurong, named for the god of fire in Chinese folk tales, is roughly the size of NASA’s 2004 Spirit and Opportunity robots.