Space.com
• Mike Wall
Chinese startup LandSpace successfully soft-landed the first stage of its methalox-powered Zhuque-3 rocket after its second orbital launch from Jiuquan on Aug. 18. The milestone makes LandSpace one of only a few private companies to recover an orbital-class booster and strengthens China’s position in reusable launch technology.
Launch Vehicles & Space Transportation
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Chinese startup LandSpace successfully soft-landed the first stage of its methalox-powered Zhuque-3 rocket after its second orbital launch from Jiuquan on Aug. 18. The milestone makes LandSpace one of only a few private companies to recover an orbital-class booster and strengthens China’s position in reusable launch technology.
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NASA’s lunar spacecraft has captured the clearest imagery yet of the roughly 60-foot-wide crater created when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon at about 8,700 km/h after 19 months adrift. Controllers tilted the spacecraft’s cameras to photograph the site from 60 miles above.
VinSpace, the recently formed space unit of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, has signed a launch contract with SpaceX for in-orbit demonstration satellites. The spacecraft are planned to fly on a 2027 Transporter rideshare mission, marking an early step in Vietnam’s emerging commercial space sector.
United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin rocket joint venture, is wrapping up a $1.5 billion private-bond transaction—three times the deal’s original size. The financing gives the venture a significantly larger capital-markets transaction as it advances its rocket business.
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SpaceX has towed Starship Ship 40 into a protected bay at Christmas Island after a 24-day voyage through the Indian Ocean. The vehicle, which achieved the program’s first intact ocean splashdown during Flight 13 on July 24, will undergo further analysis by SpaceX engineers ahead of the next test flight.
SpaceX plans to conduct its 100th mission of the year on Aug. 18, marking a significant annual launch milestone. The event will be livestreamed, giving industry observers a real-time view of the company’s continuing launch cadence.
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Globalstar deployed all eight replacement satellites built by Rocket Lab and MDA Space, while Eutelsat completed the first rendez-vous for Europe’s IRIS² programme. Separately, Viasat selected Rocket Lab for a U.S. Space Force GEO satellite, and Finland’s ReOrbit launched a €4.6 million connectivity R&D programme.
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The week of Aug. 17-23 will feature three SpaceX Starlink launches alongside China’s second test flight of the partially reusable ZhuQue-3 launcher and the robotic Chang’e 7 lunar mission. The schedule marks China’s return to launch activity after the previous week’s Chang Zheng 7A failure.
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