Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category
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October 28th, 2025
International space law from decades ago was written for a world that no longer exists, explains space lawyer Michelle Slawecki Hanlon.
“The treaties that guide us, visionary as they are, were crafted when only two nations had the power to reach orbit. They focused on peace and principles, not procedures or property rights,” Hanlon explains in a recent Facebook posting.
Cold War time capsule
Hanlon notes that today there are commercial launch providers, multinational resource ventures, private stations, lunar habitats and artificial intelligence systems operating with increasing autonomy. “Yet the legal framework that governs them still reads like a Cold War time capsule,” she responded.
Lawyers are needed, but not as regulators or obstacles.
Signing of Outer Space Treaty.
Image credit: United Nations
“Lawyers are the navigators of this new era. We shouldn’t tell industry what it can’t do; we should help it understand how to do what it wants to do — responsibly, sustainably and lawfully,” Hanlon suggests.
Stalling at the edge of legality
For one, “good space lawyering” isn’t about drawing borders, Hanlon adds. “It’s about drawing pathways and aligning innovation with international obligations so that progress doesn’t stall at the edge of legality.”
Space cowboys? International lawyers are trying to agree on what legislation will be needed to control the exploration of mineral resources in space to avoid a new ‘Wild West’.
Credit: James Vaughan
Space doesn’t need more rules; it needs people who know how to use them, Hanlon says, as the next leap in human civilization “won’t be powered by rockets alone. It will be powered by law that keeps pace with technology and imagination alike.”
For more on the advancement of space law, go to the Space Law Quick Reference Booklet – Digital Edition at:
https://secure.touchnet.net/C21670_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=1582
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Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China is set to launch its next human spaceflight crew on their Shenzhou-21 mission, the 10th piloted mission since China began the initial construction of its space station and the sixth one since the space station entered the stage of application and development.
The still unidentified Shenzhou-21 crew will replace the astronauts of the Shenzhou-20 mission, who have been in orbit for six months and will soon return to Earth. Ground teams have carried out drills at the projected landing site.
Reportedly, an October 31st launch date is targeted to send the Shenzhou-21 replacement crew to the Tiangong space station.
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Launch drills
The combination of the Shenzhou-21 spaceship and a Long March-2F Y21 carrier rocket was transferred to the launch area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center last Friday.
Meanwhile, the Shenzhou-20 crew, who have been in orbit for more than 180 days, continue to make preparations for the upcoming space station handover with the Shenzhou-21 crew.
A joint drill for lofting the Shenzhou-21 crewed mission was held at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Monday, October 27th.
Go to this video highlighting launch preparations at:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1154481020118369
Image credit: Mars Guy/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Mars Guy spotlights a rock on the Red Planet inspected by NASA’s Perseverance Rover at Jezero Crater that looks like fossilized hot spring organisms.
“Hot springs on Earth often host microbial communities that produce biofilms in their outflow channels,” says Mars Guy. “Sometimes when hot springs dry up, they leave behind fossilized streamers, which look a lot like the features in a rock found by Perseverance.”
Go to this informative video at:
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
China’s next space station milestone is the upcoming launch of the Shenzhou-21 crew. The country has rolled out the Long March 2F/G launch vehicle with the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft atop to the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on October 24th.
“The mission is currently working towards an October 31st launch to the Tiangong Space Station,” reported China Central Television (CCTV).
Upcoming are full rehearsals of the launch process.
Who is flying?
“As is standard for China’s crewed missions, the Shenzhou-21 crew is not currently known and will be announced in the days before launch through two press conferences,” CCTV adds.
China’s Shenzhou-20 crew.
Image credit: CMSA/CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Now in orbit the Shenzhou-20 trio — Commander Chen Dong, Operator Chen Zhongrui, and Science Operator Wang Jie — who have been in space since April 24th, about six months ago.
Once the Shenzhou-21 crew arrives, the six taikonauts will spend about a week together onboard China’s Tiangong space station, before the Shenzhou-20 mission returns to Earth in November.
China’s Tiangong space station as imaged by MAXAR satellite.
Image credit: MAXAR
Design changes
“This rocket incorporates 16 design changes, with the most important one being the fully upgraded optical navigation system, which greatly improves the redundant inertial measurement units and boost flight reliability,” Sun Yanqiu, an engineer of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told CCTV.
The Shenzhou-21 will be the 10th crewed mission since China began the initial construction of its space station.
For a video of the rollout, go to:
Illustration of photophoresis devices and their uses.
Image credit: Ben Schafer and Jong-hyoung Kim
A slice of Earth’s atmosphere seemingly gets no respect.
There is a high-altitude expanse that is often referred to by scientists as the “ignorosphere,” an under-studied and under-appreciated atmospheric layer because it is above surveillance by aerial vehicles and too low for steady monitoring by speeding satellite sensors.
A research team has come up with a way to grab data from that overlooked region of the unknown. They have tested and validated lightweight nanofabricated structures that can passively float at a level of our planet’s atmosphere that stretches from 50 to 85 kilometers altitude, a region tagged as Earth’s mesosphere.
Time-lapse photos of a micro-structure flying when illuminated. Proof-of-concept experiments support use of such devices to fly in the uncharted mesosphere using photophoresis.
Image credit: Ben Schafer, Jong-hyoung Kim, and Gyeong-Seok Hwang
Diagram depicts airflow around a flying device.
Image credit: Ben Schafer and Jong-hyoung Kim
For details, go to my new AIAA Aerospace America story — An upcoming demonstration could shed light on this little-studied atmospheric layer – at:
Image credit: Western Naval Command
Rocket remainders from China’s Long March 8A booster launched on October 16 have been picked up by a Philippine Navy missile boat.
The debris with made-in-China markings were recovered off Barangay Rio Tuba in Bataraza, Palawan following maritime operations in the West Philippine Sea.
Drop zones
The Long March 8A rocket was launched from the Hainan International Commercial Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan early morning on October 16. This rocket deployed the 12th group of low-orbit Internet satellites – and also marked the 600th launch of China’s Long March rocket series.
Image credit: Western Naval Command
Earlier, details of the rocket drop zones were disclosed through a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warning of an “aerospace flight activity,” notified the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).
PhilSA disseminated a pre-launch report to relevant government agencies and authorities prior to the launch.
Falling debris
“Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and fairing, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space,” the earlier PhilSA advisory notes. “While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats, and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone.”
Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Additionally, PhilSA said in the earlier advisory there was also a possibility for the debris to float around the area and wash toward nearby coasts.
“PhilSA reiterates its advice for the public to inform local authorities if suspected debris is sighted. PhilSA also cautions against retrieving or coming in close contact with these materials that may contain remnants of toxic substances such as rocket fuel,” the earlier advisory pointed out.
The Zhuque-3 by LandSpace.
Image credit: LandSpace
LandSpace, a Chinese private space company, is gearing up for the maiden flight of its partially reusable rocket, the Zhuque-3.
The booster has entered a critical phase after the completion of joint fueling drills and static ignition tests, laying the groundwork for the rocket’s official launch and first-stage recovery later this year. It is set to fly from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Zhuque-3 is equipped with landing legs and grid fins for controlled descent, designed to vertically recover its most expensive component — the first stage, which accounts for 70 percent of the total rocket cost, according to China Central Television (CCTV).
LOX-methane engines
Officially initiated in August 2023, ZhuQue-3 is a large, reusable liquid-fueled launch vehicle independently developed by LandSpace for large-scale constellation deployment missions.
Image credit: LandSpace
LandSpace explains that the vehicle features a 4.5-meter body diameter, a 5.2-meter fairing, an overall length of 66.1 meters, and a liftoff mass over 570 tons, delivering over 750 tons of liftoff thrust.
Constructed primarily from stainless steel, a LandSpace posting notes that the first stage is equipped with nine TianQue-12A LOX–methane engines and includes an RCS system, grid fins, and landing legs required for stage recovery — enabling precise autonomous return, soft landing, and reuse.
Landing precision
By parallel clustering of nine liquid oxygen-methane engines, the first-stage can achieve meter-level landing precision, as five of the engines are capable of gimballing, CCTV points out.
In addition, these engines produce a combined thrust of more than 7,500 kilonewtons, setting a new record for Chinese commercial liquid-fueled rockets, CCTV adds.
Go to this informative video showing the LandSpace Zhuque-3 Y1 being delivered to the launch site.
Image credit: CCTV
Chinese scientists have identified remnants from meteorites in lunar samples rocketed to Earth by the country’s Chang’e-6 mission.
The finding sheds light on the Moon’s past and material transfer in the solar system.
Led by a research team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIG) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, scientists identified impact remnants originating from the CI carbonaceous chondrites.
The work involved systematic petrographic analyses and examining the trace elements and oxygen isotope compositions of olivine-bearing fragments in the two-gram lunar samples collected by the Chang’e-6 mission.
The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Image credit: CCTV
Rich in water
According to Lin Mang, a researcher at GIG: “There are many hypotheses about the origin of the water on the Moon. Some say it was generated on the Moon, some say it came from the Sun, and some say it came from cometary meteorites.”
The meteorites identified are rich in water, Lin told China Central Television (CCTV), “but previously we thought the percentage of such meteorites was very small on the Moon.
The discovery of numerous such meteorites, Lin added, “suggests their contribution to the lunar water was seriously underestimated. Further research is needed to quantify the true extent of water brought to the Moon by these meteorites.”
Artwork depicts China’s Change’-6 lander/ascender on the Moon.
Image credit: CNSA
As CI chondrites are rich in water and volatiles, this finding supports the hypothesis, CCTV notes that asteroids played a role in delivering water and other volatiles to the lunar surface, according to the findings.
53-day journey
China’s Chang’e-6 collected the first-ever lunar samples from the far side of the Moon, rocketing them to Earth in June 2024, after a 53-day space journey.
Chang’e-6’s returner capsule parachuted into a selected site in north China, bringing back from the Moon over 1.93 kilograms of samples.
To access the PNAS paper – “Impactor relics of CI-like chondrites in Chang’e-6 lunar samples” – go to:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501614122
The Chang’e-6 sample container is shown being removed from the Chang’e-6 return capsule.
Image credit: Jin Liwang via SegerYU X posting.
Low-down space conflicts within the high frontier? Powerful lasers or direct-hit kinetic-kill measures are part of the anti-satellite (ASAT) tool kit.
(Image credit: Electro Optic Systems)
There is increasing space-based shenanigans going on up stairs in the heavens. Are anti-satellites (ASATs) becoming the new “must-have” technology for spacefaring nations – like China, Russia, India, as well as the United States?
What’s at stake, what to strike, and why? Those are issues being thrashed out as countries appear to “anti-up” their interest to take out or disrupt operations of select spacecraft.
Go to my new Space.com story — Are we already witnessing space warfare in action? ‘This is not just posturing’ – “The Russians and the Chinese are demonstrating more sophisticated orbital maneuvering abilities. There’s no denying that…” – at:
Images taken of purported space debris in Australia.
Image credit: Western Australia Police Force
Australian police force officers are dealing with what appears to be space debris.
Over the weekend, a hunk of smoking junk was found by mine workers nearly 19 miles east of Newman, Western Australia.
The Australian Space Agency is also carrying out “further technical analysis to identify its origin.”
The mine workers reported the object near a remote access road
A preliminary look at the wreckage suggests it is made of carbon fiber, perhaps a composite-overwrapped pressure vessels typically used in rocket tanks.
Chinese leftovers?
Satellite watcher, Marco Langbroek of the Netherlands, reports that China’s Jielong 3 upper stage 2024-173L “is a good candidate for the origin of the possible space debris object found near Newman on October 18.”
“It could actually be (a significant part of) the upper stage itself, given the large size that the photo’s suggest (and also given that the Jielong 3 upper stage is reportedly a solid fuel stage),” Langbroek reports.
The object resembles a COPV (Composite-Overwrapped Pressure Vessel), a type of space debris that often survives reentry, adds Langbroek.
Image credit: Marco Langbroek
