Analysis of Developments in the Space Domain
U.S. satellites increasingly vulnerable to China’s ground- based lasers
China conducts 22d launch of 2020; new Gaufen Earth observation satellite on orbit
China has carried out 22 launches in 2020, including a test flight of the Long March 5B for space-station missions and the launch of the Tianwen-1 Mars mission. Three of the 22 launches ended in failure.
The country led the world in launches in 2018 and 2019, launching 39 and 34 times respectively. China’s goal for 2020 is around 40 launches, with commercial launch service providers like Expace and Galactic Energy to carry out their own missions.
Indian Lunar Lander may have survived after all:
– 31 July 2020: Space enthusiast Shanmuga Subramanian, who found the debris of India’s moonlander Vikram, said that Chandrayaan-2’s rover Pragyan seems to be intact on the moon’s surface and had rolled out a few meters from the lander.
Analysts from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are in communication with Subramanian in order to confirm his conclusions.
