Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter successfully observed the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS in early October at a distance of ~29 million km, CNSA has just announced. www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n67...

Stilsat-1: A Russian-owned and Chinese-built satellite watching Ukraine (part 1) www.thespacereview.com/article/5095/1

China's human spaceflight agency stated today that the Shenzhou-20 crew spacecraft may have been struck by a small piece of debris. Impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, delaying the crew's return to Earth, originally scheduled for Nov. 5. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/G3ikYCQLEv...

Galactic Energy has conducted a successful static fire test of the first stage of its Pallas-1 launcher at Haiyang. Statement says both that launch is soon, from Jiuquan, but also that launch & recovery test in 2026. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dfbFACCzmU...

Shenzhou-20 crew have handed over control of Tiangong space station to the Shenzhou-21 astronauts. SZ-20 Trio heading home Nov. 5. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/W77mDnEmjG...

IAMCAS recently completed the ground test of the core module of the "Reconfigurable Flexible On-Orbit Manufacturing Platform" mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Xt1PwUScJT...

Shenzhou-21 mice in microgravity

Shenzhou-21 successfully docked with Tiangong at 1922 UTC, just over 3.5 hours after launch. www.cmse.gov.cn/xwzx/202511/...

Foreshadowing.

Liftoff

Shenzhou-21 is launching from Jiuquan at 1544 UTC today (11:44 am Eastern) with astronauts Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang heading to Tiangong space station. Live stream here: www.youtube.com/live/YdKgnrc...

HEO’s satellite-to-satellite imaging uncovers secrets of Chinese tech-test spacecraft Australian company HEO has imaged and modeled a mystery Chinese satellite prior to its reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, revealing previously unknown details about the spacecraft.

Space policy stuff: China on Thursday concluded a plenary session of the CPC central committee, & the communique released immediately after gives insights into priorities for the 15th five-year plan (2026-2030) that will be released in March. Space is explicitly mentioned. (1/4)

Shenzhou-21 crewed mission: Long March 2F Y21 has been rolled out to the pad at Jiuquan spaceport. Launch expected ~15:40 UTC Oct. 31. Crew to be revealed the day before launch. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EWvYlYxVFp...

Launch: A Long March 5 lifted off at 1430 UTC today from Wenchang, sending the secretive communications technology test satellite TJS-20 into geosynchronous transfer orbit. This was China's 65th orbital launch attempt of 2025.

Zhuque-3. Via weibo.com/3775048831/Q...

Integrated Zhuque-3 on the pad.

Galactic Energy has released the mission patch for the first launch of the Ceres-2 solid rocket. Launch sometime in the near future.

A Long March 2D stage falling to Earth in Guinan county, Qinghai, following the launch of Shiyan-31 from Jiuquan on Oct. 13. Video: m.weibo.cn/detail/52219...

CGST is back, this time with a set of images of the International Space Station taken by on Oct. 1 its Jilin-1 EO fleet. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ETRllIFt9E...

Well, Space Pioneer may have just topped this, raising nearly 2.5 bn yuan ($351 million) in pre-D/D round funding. This goes towards Tianlong-2 & 3 launchers & "next-gen engines & rockets." Debut TL-3 launch before end of 2025. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6g3HQeb_lN...

ArianeGroup work on reusable launcher pathfinders. Hop tests soon in Kiruna.

CNSA has released an image of Tianwen-2 in deep space using a robotic arm, giving us a proper look at the spacecraft and return capsule for delivering samples from near Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa. Tianwen-2 has been in space for 125 days, is 45 million km from Kamoʻoalewa.

Deep Blue Nebula has carried out a 308-second static fire test of the second stage of its Nebula-1 launcher as a step towards a first orbital flight. No tentative month for launch given. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/H7X2JnaAsi...

JAXA's Hiroshi Yamakawa says MMX Phobos sample return mission almost ready, undergoing final testing. Launch in 2026, return to Earth with samples of the Martian moon in 2031. #IAC2025

V. Narayanan says ISRO targeting early 2027 for Gaganyaan crewed mission. #IAC2025

ISRO's V. Narayanan says at #IAC2025 that the agency has received approval for the LUPEX lunar landing mission with JAXA.

"I think we're going to have sustained human life on the Moon," NASA acting administrator Duffy said at #IAC2025 when asked about what space will look like in 10 years. Will also make "leaps and bounds" on the journey to Mars.

Tianwen-3 Mars sample return. Launch in late 2028.

Tianwen-4. Callisto in the background.

Launch 59: A Long March 2D lifted off at 0300 UTC today from Xichang, sending the experimental Shiyan-30 (01) and (02) satellites into orbit. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eOGi0svYbp...

Long March 12 on the right at the CNSA stand at IAC in Sydney.

This week's running route is pretty special

And we have a successful second stage static fire test for Pallas-1. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gnKoNzJzOE...

And here's launch 58: A Long March 6A lifted off at 1240 UTC today from Taiyuan, sending 5 Guowang broadband satellites into orbit.

A Long March 4C lifted off at 1928 UTC on Sept. 26 from Jiuquan, successfully sending the Fengyun-3 (08) meteorological satellite into orbit. This was China's 57th launch of 2025.

Astronauts Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie completed a ~6 hour spacewalk at 1735 UTC Sept. 25. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2y8N-4JSCf...

@catherineq.bsky.social The Shenzhou-20 crew are set for their 4th extravehicular activity "in the near future" (possibly within a few hours), China's human spaceflight agency announced earlier today. www.cmse.gov.cn/xwzx/202509/...

Liftoff of a Jielong-3 solid rocket from a barge in the past few minutes, expected to carry new Geesatcom satellites into orbit. live.bilibili.com/23118988

Galactic Energy preparing for the debut fight of the kerolox Pallas-1 rocket

The nice thing about this update is that NARIT states that Chang'e-7 is scheduled to launch in October 2026, giving us a month for the mission. As it's targeting Shackleton crater at the lunar south pole, the timing may be illumination related.

The National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) has delivered the CE-7 MATCH (Moon-Aiming Thai-Chinese Hodoscope) payload to China. This comes ahead of China's Chang'e-7 lunar landing mission, due to launch next year.

Another new Chinese launch startup. Space Spark (Hefei Xinghuo Space Technology Co., Ltd), pursuing an electric pump fed engine design. m.weibo.cn/detail/52118...

J'ai fait quelques petits ajouts et corrections.

Separation testing ahead of the Lijian-2/Kinetica-2 launch carrying the Qingzhou prototype cargo spacecraft. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/v176XxzuEb...

It's looking like 2027 for launch of Xuntian/three Chinese space station telescope (a slip from Dec. 2026).

More than a year after the horror show dynamic test, they're back. Successful STATIC fire for Space Pioneer and their Tianlong-3 first stage. m.weibo.cn/detail/52111...

Long March 10: Xu Hongping, rocket series chief commander, says development consists of 4 steps: -- 3-engine test (June 2024) -- 2 X tethered 7-engine hit fires (Aug. & Sept) -- low-altitude flight & recovery test (next) -- orbital flight test www.news.cn/tech/2025081...

China's CGST has returned the favour, using its Jilin-1 sats to image a Maxar Worldview Legion 2 satellite. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3oGA5_HVKJ...

Second test firing of the Long March 10 test article took place at 0700 UTC at Wenchang today, lasting 320 seconds. Part of the test was assessing secondary ignition capabilities of the 7 parallel first-stage engines.