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SONG CHEN\/CHINA DAILY <\/p>\n
\n SONG CHEN\/CHINA DAILY <\/p>\n
China conducted a total of 93 space launches in 2025, setting a new national record for orbital launches in a single year.<\/p>\n
On Dec 31, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, or CASC, the nation\u201cs leading space contractor, launched a Long March 7A carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, deploying two technology demonstration satellites into their orbital positions and concluding the nation\u2019s space missions scheduled for 2025.<\/p>\n
According to the State-owned conglomerate, it carried out 73 launch missions last year, also a high for the company. Among them, 69 were made by models in the Long March family and four were executed by the Smart Dragon 3 series. These rockets transported more than 300 spacecraft into orbit.<\/p>\n
Another State-owned contractor, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, staged four launches of its Kuaizhou-series rockets, with three successes and one failure.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, private enterprises, a rising force in the country\u2019s space community, made 16 launches last year, much more than in previous years. Fourteen of the privately funded missions were successful.<\/p>\n
Since 2019, the number of China\u2019s orbital launch missions has risen consecutively, with more launches completed each year.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the nation fulfilled 68 space missions, with 66 successful. It had 67 rocket launches in 2023, boasting 66 successes.<\/p>\n
Three new types of rockets \u2014 Long March 8A, ZQ 3 and Long March 12A \u2014 made their maiden flights in 2025, with two of them able to be reused.<\/p>\n
In February, the first Long March 8A blasted off at the Wenchang Space Launch Center and soon placed the payloads \u2014 the second group of low-orbit satellites in China\u2019s State-owned internet network \u2014 into their preset orbit.<\/p>\n
After the mission, Long March 8A became the 18th operating member in the Long March family, the pillar of China\u2019s space programs.<\/p>\n
Designed and built by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a CASC subsidiary in Beijing, the Long March 8A is 50.5 meters tall, and has a liftoff weight of 371 metric tons and a liftoff thrust of about 480 tons.<\/p>\n
Since the first launch, six Long March 8As have been used. All of the flights were to deploy low-orbit internet satellites.<\/p>\n
In early December, LandSpace, a leading private space company in China, conducted the debut mission of its ZQ 3 carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China.<\/p>\n
The mission represented China\u2019s first attempt to send a reusable rocket into orbit and bring the recoverable parts back to Earth safely.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the liftoff, the rocket\u2019s second-stage booster reached its preset orbital position, which testified to the model\u2019s flight capability. The first-stage booster flew back into the atmosphere as per the recovery plan but soon burst into a fireball over a designated landing site in Minqin county in Gansu province, which has a straight-line distance of 253 kilometers from the launch site.<\/p>\n
Made primarily of stainless steel, the current configuration of ZQ 3 is 66.1 meters tall and 4.5 meters wide, and it weighs nearly 560 tons when fully fueled.<\/p>\n
In late December, CASC made its first attempt to recover a rocket\u2019s reusable parts, through the maiden flight of its Long March 12A, the tallest rocket China has ever built.<\/p>\n
The result was identical to what happened to the ZQ 3: the expendable second-stage booster entered orbit as planned, but the first-stage booster \u2014 designed to be reusable \u2014 crashed onto the ground and exploded.<\/p>\n
The Long March 12A model is designed and built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary. It stands 70.4 meters, has a width of 3.8 meters and a liftoff weight of 437 tons, and is able to transport at least 6 tons of payloads to a low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n
China has been striving to develop a fleet of reusable rockets that can tremendously reduce launch costs and improve the efficiency and frequency of space missions.<\/p>\n
Globally, only two companies in the United States \u2014 SpaceX and Blue Origin \u2014 have owned operational reusable rockets. The best-known reusable rocket is SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9, which has made many launches with reused boosters.<\/p>\n
Both SpaceX and Blue Origin had many failures in their recovery attempts before achieving the feat.<\/p>\n
Flying toward asteroid<\/p>\n
In late May, China launched its first asteroid sampling mission from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, aiming to explore a small, near-Earth asteroid and retrieve samples from it for scientists.<\/p>\n
Lifted by a Long March 3B rocket, the Tianwen 2 robotic probe has been traveling along a carefully calculated trajectory toward its destination, an asteroid called 2016 HO3, for more than seven months.<\/p>\n
The probe carries 11 scientific instruments, including multispectral and medium-field color cameras, charged and neutral particle analyzers, a thermal radiation spectrometer and a laser integrated navigation sensor.<\/p>\n
Shan Zhongde, director of the China National Space Administration, described it as a lengthy, complex and challenging expedition.<\/p>\n
The CNSA said the Tianwen 2 mission is expected to accomplish multiple objectives through a single expedition, including the collection of samples from 2016 HO3 and flyby exploration of the main-belt comet 311P. Main-belt comets exhibit comet-like activity and asteroid-like orbits within the asteroid belt.<\/p>\n
Mission planners want to accomplish two major engineering goals through the Tianwen 2 project. The first is to develop and demonstrate key technologies needed for gathering samples from weak-gravity celestial bodies, and for making high-precision autonomous navigation and control, as well as other crucial maneuvers. The second is to obtain data and samples to facilitate studies about the origins and evolution of asteroids.<\/p>\n
Planners hope the spacecraft can measure the multiple physical parameters of both 2016 HO3 and 311P, covering their size and shape, orbital traits, rotation patterns and thermal radiation characteristics, which will allow for research on their orbital dynamics. Researchers will also analyze their external features, material compositions, internal structures and possible ejecta, the material thrown out from a crater during an impact event.<\/p>\n
After the samples are sent back to Earth, they will be distributed to scientists, who will examine their physical properties, chemical and mineralogical content and isotopic composition, contributing to studies on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system, according to the CNSA.<\/p>\n
The asteroid 2016 HO3, also known as 469219 Kamo\u2019oalewa, was first spotted in April 2016 by an asteroid survey telescope at the Haleakala High Altitude Observatory in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
The celestial body orbits the sun, so it remains a constant companion of Earth. It is too distant to be considered a true satellite of Earth, but it is the best and most stable example to date of a quasi-satellite.<\/p>\n
The analyses of 2016 HO3\u2019s reflectance spectrum and other physical characteristics have led to a hypothesis that this asteroid may be a boulder that was blasted off the surface of the moon following an impact with another space object.<\/p>\n
According to previous scientific studies, the asteroid likely preserves primordial information from the birth of the solar system, holding immense scientific value for investigating the material composition, formation processes and evolutionary history of the early solar system.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s first excursion to an asteroid was a flyby of the elongated, irregularly shaped near-Earth asteroid named 4179 Toutatis in 2012, when the Chang\u2019e 2 lunar orbiter made the pass as part of its extended mission.<\/p>\n
As China\u2019s first attempt to retrieve asteroid samples, the Tianwen 2 mission is characterized by a succession of sophisticated and challenging maneuvers that demand the highest level of planning, calculation and implementation.<\/p>\n
The spacecraft, which was designed and built by the China Academy of Space Technology, also a CASC subsidiary, is programmed to carry out several trajectory maneuvers to make sure it will always be directed at 2016 HO3. After reaching 2016 HO3, it is set to orbit the asteroid to perform remote observation and obtain data to enable scientists and ground controllers to analyze and determine suitable locations for the mission\u2019s most critical part \u2014 the sampling operation.<\/p>\n
After all preparations are completed, the probe will approach the asteroid to gather samples.<\/p>\n
If everything goes according to schedule, at the end of 2027, Tianwen 2 will fly back to Earth\u2019s orbit and release its re-entry module, which will return to the ground with the samples.<\/p>\n
After dropping off the precious asteroid substances, the probe will use Earth\u2019s gravity as a slingshot to boost itself toward 311P. It is expected to arrive at the comet several years later to conduct a detailed remote-sensing survey.<\/p>\n
Multiple \u2018firsts\u2019<\/p>\n
To officials, designers and engineers involved in China\u2019s manned space programs, the year just gone by is surely an unforgettable one.<\/p>\n
On Nov 4, just one day before their scheduled return to Earth, the Shenzhou XX mission crew, headed by Senior Colonel Chen Dong, found tiny cracks on their return capsule\u2019s viewport window, which were suspected to be caused by impacts from space debris.<\/p>\n
At that time, Chen and his two teammates had completed all assignments set for their six-month orbital journey, which began in late April, and had handed over the Tiangong space station to their three peers from the Shenzhou XXI mission, who arrived on Nov 1.<\/p>\n
Right before the handover, the two crews used a specially built oven, taken by the Shenzhou XXI team to orbit, to prepare grilled chicken wings and black pepper beef steaks, becoming the first humans to have a barbecue in outer space.<\/p>\n
After receiving a report about the damaged window, space officials soon decided to postpone and rearrange the Shenzhou XX crew\u2019s return. Given that the viewport must withstand friction temperatures exceeding 1,000 C during atmospheric re-entry, the return capsule was deemed unsafe for crew return, triggering an emergency response plan.<\/p>\n
Mission planners and engineers promptly started following emergency response measures based on the principle of \u201eputting the safety of astronauts first\u201c.<\/p>\n
They conducted comprehensive simulation analyses, tests and safety assessments to determine a practical, reliable way to bring the Shenzhou XX crew back home.<\/p>\n
It was then decided that Chen\u2019s team would ride on the Shenzhou XXI spaceship\u2019s re-entry capsule, which was originally designated for the Shenzhou XXI crew, for their return trip.<\/p>\n
After several days of preparations, the Shenzhou XX astronauts flew back to Earth on Nov 14, putting an end to their 204-day mission, the longest single flight by Chinese astronauts.<\/p>\n
In addition to their personal belongings and experimental samples, the team also brought back four mice \u2014 two females and two males \u2014 that arrived at the Tiangong with the Shenzhou XXI crew and stayed there for nearly two weeks as the study objects of the nation\u2019s first in-orbit experimentation on rodent mammals.<\/p>\n
The mice were then transferred to the Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers who observed the adaptive changes and possible impact of weightlessness and enclosed space on their behavioral patterns, tissue and organs.<\/p>\n
At the end of December, researchers announced that one space mouse delivered nine pups on Dec 10. By the time the news was published, six of the newborns had survived \u2014 a rate considered normal. Researchers noted that the mother \u201eis nursing normally\u201c and the pups appear active and healthy.<\/p>\n
On Nov 25, the unmanned Shenzhou XXII spacecraft was launched by a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport and soon connected with the front port of the Tianhe core module, the central piece of the Tiangong. It transported the crew\u2019s provisions and mission payloads to the orbiting outpost.<\/p>\n
This was the first emergency-response flight mission ever made for the nation\u2019s manned space program.<\/p>\n
Grand plan unfolding<\/p>\n
Having gained rich experience through its robotic lunar exploration missions, China has been moving progressively toward its goal of sending astronauts to the moon around 2030, with several major achievements made in the past year, according to the China Manned Space Agency.<\/p>\n
In June, the agency made a pad abort test of the country\u2019s next-generation crew vessel, Mengzhou, at the Jiuquan center. Such tests allow designers and engineers to verify safety systems of new spacecraft without putting crews\u2019 lives on the line.<\/p>\n
In August, the agency conducted a comprehensive landing and takeoff test for its manned lunar lander, Lanyue, at a test site in Huailai county, Hebei province.<\/p>\n
It was the first time China has carried out a test of extraterrestrial landing and takeoff capabilities of a manned spacecraft, the agency said.<\/p>\n
In the same month, engineers conducted a key test at the Wenchang spaceport on the propulsion system to be used on the Long March 10 rocket, a new type of launch vehicle crucial to sending astronauts to the moon.<\/p>\n
During the ignition test, engines on the rocket\u2019s first-stage booster generated a massive combined thrust of nearly 1,000 tons, setting a new domestic record of the most powerful engine ignition test.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s road map for its first manned lunar expedition involves two Long March 10 launches from the Wenchang spaceport to transport a Lanyue lunar lander and a Mengzhou manned spacecraft to lunar orbit.<\/p>\n
After reaching their preset orbital positions, the Lanyue lander and the Mengzhou vessel will rendezvous and dock. Two crew members will enter the lander, which will then undock and descend toward the lunar surface for an engine-assisted soft landing.<\/p>\n
On the moon, the astronauts will drive a rover to carry out scientific tasks and collect samples. Upon completion of their assignments, they will return to the Lanyue module, which will fly them back to their spaceship waiting in lunar orbit.<\/p>\n
In the final stage, the astronauts will carry samples into the Mengzhou spacecraft, which will then undock and carry the crew back to Earth.<\/p>\n
To prepare for the sophisticated adventure, China has selected its fourth group of astronauts, who are currently training for lunar landing and surface operations.<\/p>\n
Once the mission is achieved, China will become the second nation to land astronauts on the moon, significantly boosting its global space standing. The United States successfully conducted six Apollo crewed missions in the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n
[email\u00a0protected]<\/p>\n