Commercial Space Daily · Archive
Commercial Space Daily archive, 4 issue
- 112026-11Robot autonomously assembles antenna truss in orbit for the first timeA robot developed by Caltech and funded by DARPA, part of the ASTRA program, autonomously assembled the third section of an antenna truss in orbit, a feat researchers call the first autonomous structure built in space. The demo did not produce a complete antenna, but it validated the path of launching small parts and assembling them in orbit. DARPA's NOM4D program aims even higher, targeting space structures kilometers in scale.
- 092026-11Long March 12 Launches 29th Batch of Satellite Internet Satellites Into Orbit Before DawnAt 04:24 on Nov 9, a Long March 12 rocket lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Spaceport and successfully placed the 29th batch of low-orbit satellite internet satellites into orbit, marking a complete success. It was the 676th launch of the Long March series and another constellation-deployment mission for the Long March 12 at the commercial spaceport, showing that China's mass deployment of low-orbit satellite internet and routine commercial rocket launches are advancing in step.
- 082026-11Stareye Constellation Begins Networking Trials as Space Debris Observation Moves Toward 'Watching Space from Space'On Nov 7, the Ceres-2 Y3 rocket lifted off successfully from Jiuquan, sending four satellites—including the Guanlan test satellite and YunYao-1 28—into their planned orbits. Among them, the Stareye space situational awareness satellite focuses on observing space debris and providing space traffic management services for on-orbit spacecraft. The Stareye constellation is planned for 156 satellites in total, following a test-first, phased-construction approach. Low-orbit debris in the 1 cm to 10 cm range has reached the million level, and ground-based observation has gaps in temporal and spatial coverage, making space-based sensing the complementary direction.
- 072026-11Ceres-2 Returns to Flight, Galactic Energy Enters the Ton-Class Payload MarketAbout nine and a half months after its failed debut, Galactic Energy's Ceres-2 Y3 rocket returned to flight successfully from Jiuquan, placing four satellites into their planned orbits: the Guanlan test satellite, Yunyao-1 28, the North University of China-1 satellite, and Juntian-1 06A. The return-to-flight validated the fault closure process and marked Galactic Energy's payload capacity rising from 0.3 tonnes on Ceres-1 to 1.3 tonnes, officially entering the ton-class launch services market.