Tag: Satellites

A Ton of Space Junk Tumbles Unpredictably to Earth Every Week

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One December afternoon, the sky tore open and a fiery hunk of metal, wider than a school bus, came hurtling down. It was louder than a thunderclap when it plunged into a patch of farmland, startling everyone in the village of Mukuku, about three hours south of Nairobi, Kenya. “People were thinking this is the end of the world,” said John Mukunuu, who lives nearby. When the villagers arrived, they found a giant ring, taller than a man and heavier than a horse, lodged into the earth. They watched it…

China Launches Reusable Rocket in Race With SpaceX

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new video loaded: China Launches Reusable Rocket in Race With SpaceX transcript Back transcript China Launches Reusable Rocket in Race With SpaceX Video released by Chinese state media shows a state-owned aerospace company launching a rocket and recovering part of it on Friday. The successful launch of a reusable rocket was a major step for China toward challenging SpaceX’s satellite internet dominance. Stage 1 liftoff of Falcon 9. Go SpaceX. Go Starlink. <img src="https://www.chinastrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/china-launches-reusable-rocket-in-race-with-spacex.png" data-testid="betamax-poster" sizes="(width < 1024px) 100vw, (width Video released by Chinese state media shows a state-owned aerospace…

China Launches Reusable Rocket, Clearing a Key Hurdle in Race With SpaceX

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China’s space program took an important step on Friday toward its elusive goal of competing with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, in the race to dominate the satellite industry. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a government entity, launched a Long March 10B rocket and recovered its bottom part, called the first stage, a few minutes later. This essential step toward reusing the rocket’s parts for future missions could signal a long-awaited breakthrough for Chinese satellite companies. SpaceX revolutionized the industry with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, whose first…

What is China’s SpaceSail, and could it rival Elon Musk’s Starlink?

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Elon Musk’s Starlink has long dominated the satellite internet industry, but a Chinese government-backed project is aiming to challenge its position. SpaceSail has just a few hundred satellites in low Earth orbit compared with Starlink’s 10,000-plus. But the company says it now has enough satellites to begin its first commercial application, is scaling up at speed, and is reportedly negotiating with dozens of countries to provide satellite internet coverage. According to Blaine Curcio, founder of Hong Kong-based firm Orbital Gateway Consulting, SpaceSail is “deliberately targeting” places where Starlink has faced…

In the Latest Space Race, It’s China vs. SpaceX

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new video loaded: In the Latest Space Race, It’s China vs. SpaceX By Selam Gebrekidan, Nikolay Nikolov, Jon Hazell, Laura Salaberry and Malika Khurana•July 24, 2025 China has made it a national priority to catch up with SpaceX’s nearly 8,000 Starlink internet-providing satellites in low-Earth orbit, which it regards as a military threat. Despite successes in other parts of its space program, China has just 124 internet-providing satellites in low-Earth orbit. Selam Gebrekidian, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, explains why China is lagging behind in this new…

As Space Threats Mount, U.S. Lags in Protecting GPS Services

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The United States and China are locked in a new race, in space and on Earth, over a fundamental resource: time itself. And the United States is losing. Global positioning satellites serve as clocks in the sky, and their signals have become fundamental to the global economy — as essential for telecommunications, 911 services and financial exchanges as they are for drivers and lost pedestrians. But those services are increasingly vulnerable as space is rapidly militarized and satellite signals are attacked on Earth. Yet, unlike China, the United States does…

Taiwan Is Building a Satellite Network Without Elon Musk

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In Taiwan, the government is racing to do what no country or even company has been able to: build an alternative to Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX. Starlink has allowed militaries, power plants and medical workers to maintain crucial online connections when primary infrastructure has failed in emergencies, such as an earthquake in Tonga and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Officials in Taiwan face constant reminders that its communication infrastructure must be able to withstand a crisis. The island democracy sits 80 miles from…

U.S. Fears Russia Might Put a Nuclear Weapon in Space

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When Russia conducted a series of secret military satellite launches around the time of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, American intelligence officials began delving into the mystery of what, exactly, the Russians were doing. Later, spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected. In recent weeks, a new warning has circulated from America’s spy agencies: Another launch may be in the works, and the question is whether Russia plans to use…