Reference News Network, December 26 report: The U.S. Space website published a report by journalist Andrew Jones on December 24, titled "Record Launches, Reusable Rockets and a Rescue: China's Space Industry Achieves Major Progress in 2025."

The report pointed out that in the coming year, China has made significant progress in the space field, including important crewed lunar landing tests, attempts to land new rockets and boosters, new deep space exploration missions, and the successful resolution of a crewed space emergency.

This year, the number of Chinese space launches has broken the previous annual record (68 launches set in 2024), and by the time this article was written, it had already carried out more than 80 launch attempts.

Major achievements in China's space program in 2025 (bold, same below)

Part of the increase in launch missions is driven by two of China's giant constellations: the GW constellation and the Qianfan constellation, both of which will consist of more than 10,000 satellites. This is China's response to SpaceX's Starlink and other Western low-Earth-orbit communication constellations. The GW constellation alone conducted more than a dozen launches this year. It is expected that the launch missions of these projects will increase in 2026.

One of the areas where China made major progress in 2025 is its crewed lunar landing program. China plans to send astronauts to the moon before 2030, and this year conducted important hardware tests for this ambitious plan.

China also launched a probe into deep space. Tianwen-2 was launched in May this year and is now on its way to a mysterious asteroid. The probe is expected to arrive at the asteroid in July 2026, providing us with images of another new world and eventually returning samples from there.

Resolution of the first space emergency (bold)

In 2025, not everything went according to plan. China originally planned three launch missions to the Tiangong space station in 2025: the crewed spacecraft Shenzhou 20 and Shenzhou 21 were scheduled to be launched in April and October respectively, and the cargo spacecraft Tianzhou 9 was to be launched in July.

However, just as Shenzhou 20 was about to carry three astronauts back to Earth, a small crack appeared on the window glass of the return capsule, possibly caused by an external impact from space debris. This spacecraft might not be able to safely carry the astronauts through the high-temperature environment of re-entering the atmosphere, so an emergency plan was immediately initiated.

The crew of Shenzhou 20 switched to the newly arrived Shenzhou 21 crewed spacecraft to return to Earth. At the same time, Shenzhou 22 quickly completed preparations and was launched without a crew to the Tiangong space station. In the face of a major crewed space emergency, China's orderly response measures quickly resolved the crisis.

China's space missions for the next year (bold)

China's pace of space launches has accelerated, and it is expected to further accelerate in 2026, during which more reusable rocket tests, giant constellation launches, and continuous expansion of space launch sites will take place.

Additionally, China will carry out some flagship missions next year. The Chang'e 7 lunar probe will be launched, aiming to land at the Moon's south pole and search for water ice. The Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Interactions Panoramic Imaging Satellite (SMILE), a joint mission between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency, will also be launched in spring.

In 2026, China will take new steps in crewed spaceflight. China will launch the Shenzhou 23 and Shenzhou 24 spacecraft to the Tiangong space station. (Translated by Li Sha)

Original source: toutiao.com/article/7588019385655247403/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.