Record launches, reusable rockets and a rescue: China made big strides in space in 2025
SOURCE:Space.com|BY: Andrew Jones
China overcomes human spaceflight emergency and makes leaps with lunar hardware tests
China's Zhuque-3 rocket took off from Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone on December 3, 2025. (Image credit: VCG /Getty Images)
China is rounding off what has been a year of big progress in space, including major crewed lunar landing tests, new rockets and booster landing attempts, a new deep space mission and even successfully resolving its first human spaceflight emergency.
The country has already smashed its previous record for launches in a calendar year (68, set in 2024), amassing more than 80 orbital launch attempts at time of reporting, with a couple of weeks still to go. Two of these launches ended in failure, both from commercial launch providers, but the venerable Long March rocket series continued a long, failure-free run dating back to 2020.
Chinese space successes in 2025
Driving some of this growth in launches are the country's two megaconstellations: the national Guowang project and the Shanghai-backed Thousand Sails constellation, both of which are to consist of more than 10,000 satellites each. These are China's response to SpaceX's Starlink and other Western low Earth orbit communications constellations. There were 15 launches this year for Guowang alone, but expect launches for these projects to increase in 2026.
One area of major progress for China in 2025 was its crewed lunar program. The country aims to land a pair of its astronauts on the moon before 2030 and this year saw some of the first major hardware tests for the ambitious project. Key tests included testing a shortened stage of the new moon rocket, a liftoff and landing test in simulated lunar conditions for the Lanyue crew lander, and a pad abort test for the crew spacecraft. This progress has contributed to concerns in the U.S. that China will land its astronauts on the moon before America can return to the lunar surface with Artemis 3.
China also made a launch to deep space, with the Tianwen 2 near-Earth asteroid sample return mission launching in May and now on its way to the mysterious asteroid Kamo'oalewa. The spacecraft is expected to reach the asteroid in July 2026, providing us with images and eventually samples of another new world. Tianwen 2 is China's second deep space exploration mission, following the 2020 Tianwen 1 Mars rover and orbiter. Incidentally, the orbiter for that mission is still active and in October, captured images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS; one of the major space events of the year.
A series of photos of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, captured from Mars orbit by Tianwen 1 in early October 2025. (Image credit: CNSA)
Closer to Earth, China also appeared to have completed a pioneering satellite refueling in geostationary orbit, high above the equator. The test could mark a breakthrough for extending spacecraft lifetimes, reducing debris, and bringing strategic flexibility.
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China resolves 1st spaceflight emergency
Not everything went according to plan for China in 2025. The country planned three missions to its Tiangong space station in 2025: the crewed Shenzhou 20 and Shenzhou 21 missions, which launched in April and October respectively, and the Tianzhou 9 cargo spacecraft in July.
These plans were upended, however, when routine checks found an external crack in a Shenzhou 20 spacecraft viewport window on Nov. 5, likely caused by space debris, just before it was due to carry its three astronauts back to Earth. The spacecraft was deemed not to be safe to carry astronauts through the heat of reentry, meaning emergency protocols were initiated.
The Shenzhou 20 astronauts instead returned to Earth in the recently-arrived Shenzhou 21 spacecraft, while the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft — on standby for just a scenario at Jiuquan spaceport — was readied in 16 days and launched to Tiangong uncrewed to provide a lifeboat for the Shenzhou 21 astronauts. The incident was the first major human spaceflight emergency for China, with its orderly response quickly solving the crisis.
Astronaut Chen Dong, who was the commander of China's Shenzhou-20 mission, salutes a crowd. (Image credit: VCG/Getty Images)
The year ahead for Chinese space missions
China's already accelerating launch rate is only likely to increase in 2026, with further reusable rocket test flights and landing attempts, megaconstellation launches, and the continued expansion of its spaceports, particularly in Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert, the Hainan commercial launch pads, and the maritime spaceport in the Eastern province of Shandong.
There will also be flagship missions. The second half of the year will see the launch of the Chang'e 7 robotic lunar mission, which will target a landing at the lunar south pole and aim to seek out water-ice. There will also be a joint space weather mission, named SMILE, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency (ESA), launching in the spring.
China's Yutu 2 lunar rover, as seen by the Chang'e 4 lander, on the far side of the moon. The 2026 Chang'e 7 mission will also feature a large rover, as well as a lander and a small hopper that will explore lunar craters. (Image credit: CNSA)
China will also take new steps in human spaceflight in 2026. The country will send a pair of missions to Tiangong, namely Shenzhou 23 and Shenzhou 24. One of these is expected to carry the first International astronaut from Pakistan to the space station. The stay is expected to be short, launching on a Shenzhou as part of a three-person crew, and returning days later with two Chinese astronauts returning to Earth after their six-month-long stay in orbit. That will leave one Chinese astronaut from the completed mission to stay in orbit for a further six months, becoming the first Chinese astronaut to spend an entire year in orbit continuously.
Maybe the most closely watched and consequential missions will be related to China's crewed moon plans. China plans debut flights for its Long March 10 rocket and the Mengzhou spacecraft in 2026, with success being crucial to achieving its goal of landing its astronauts on the moon before 2030.
Andrew is a freelance space journalist with a focus on reporting on China's rapidly growing space sector. He began writing for Space.com in 2019 and writes for SpaceNews, IEEE Spectrum, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, New Scientist and others. Andrew first caught the space bug when, as a youngster, he saw Voyager images of other worlds in our solar system for the first time. Away from space, Andrew enjoys trail running in the forests of Finland. You can follow him on Twitter @AJ_FI.
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