From August 4 through 7, 1972, the Sun produced several bursts of flares and energetic particles between the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 missions.

The Artemis III Moon landing mission will not carry a NASA laser communications unit.

Orion on Artemis II will carry more radiation sensors than were carried on Artemis I.

An OSC pathfinder awarded in June 2025 tasked LeoLabs with demonstrating persistent custody of newly launched payloads and supporting operational decision-making in the launch and early operations phase.

The U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce and the U.S. Space Force Joint Commercial Operations cell jointly licensed access to LeoLabs’ Object Catalog in September 2025.

LeoLabs’ catalog includes 99.96% of all satellites and 98.56% of all debris listed in the U.S. Department of War public catalog.

LeoLabs closed 2025 with more than $60 million in total contract awards across its U.S. and Allied civil, defense, and commercial customers.

LeoLabs is on track to operationalize its first containerized Scout radar at a site in Hawaii in early 2026.

Both the Hawaii Scout site and the Indo-Pacific Seeker site will contribute to LeoLabs’ Global Radar Network and augment U.S. Space Force space domain awareness capabilities.

LeoLabs has an agreement with NASA to integrate its Object Catalog dataset into government operations.

LeoLabs currently tracks over 25,000 objects in low Earth orbit.

LeoLabs can track and independently catalog dozens of commercial payloads from complex rideshare missions within seven days after launch.

China completed a record 92 orbital launches in 2025.

LeoLabs expanded its radar architecture in 2025 and finalized the design of two new radar classes, Seeker and Scout, in partnership with U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command and SpaceWERX through STRATFI and TACFI awards.

LeoLabs is developing a version of its expeditionary Scout radar optimized for missile tracking in 2026.

LeoLabs is on track to operationalize its first Seeker radar at a site in the Indo-Pacific region by 2027.

LeoLabs achieved 186% year-over-year growth in U.S. government contracts in 2025.

LeoLabs is included in the Competitive Range for the Missile Defense Agency’s SHIELD indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which has a ceiling of $151 billion USD.

A Long March 2F vehicle was scheduled for a possible liftoff from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center around February 7th according to pre-launch notices.

The third Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission lasted 268 days and landed at the Lop Nur airfield on September 6, 2024.

Only one known image of the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft exists and the vehicle is no more than ten meters in length based on the mid-2024 spotting.

Within the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft there is an attitude thrusters propellant supply and a possible payload section for experiments or satellite release.

The third Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission began on December 14, 2023, with a Long March 2F/T launch from Jiuquan.

The Long March 2F/T 'T' variant uses a 4.2-meter-wide fairing that was previously used for Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space stations and modified to carry a spaceplane.

During the second mission, the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft released an object that conducted multiple observed rendezvous and proximity operations and had its own propulsion capability.

U.S. firm Maxar, now Vantor, displayed an image at a U.S. Space Force event on November 7, 2024, that may have depicted a spaceplane and noted imaging capabilities up to 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers).

The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft’s exterior features hundreds to thousands of thermal protection tiles across its underside, wings, nose, and aft.

Across its three missions, the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft spent a cumulative total of up to 546 days in space.

The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft first launched on September 4, 2020, on a Long March 2F/T from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center into low Earth orbit.

The first Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission reached an initial orbit of approximately 331 by 347 kilometers.

The first Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission lasted under two days and landed at the Lop Nur airfield in Xinjiang on September 6, 2020.

The Long March 2F launch vehicle had a next flight expected in April for the Shenzhou-23 mission with the hardware delivered in recent weeks.

The U.S. China Aerospace Studies Institute reported technology breakthroughs related to Shenlong occurring between 2000–2004, around 2007, and 2010–2012.

The spaceplane imaged by Maxar could plausibly be America’s X-37B rather than China’s Reusable Experimental Spacecraft based on available public information.

A winged test vehicle known as Shenlong conducted drop tests from a Xi’an H-6 bomber in December 2007.

Fairing halves recovered after the spaceplane’s second mission showed protrusions consistent with wing attachments and an additional protrusion about forty-five degrees toward the aft consistent with a vertical stabilizer.

China’s Reusable Experimental Spacecraft (可重复使用试验航天器) is currently the only publicly known payload for the Long March 2F/T 'T' variant.

The second Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission concluded with a landing at the Lop Nur airfield on May 8, 2023.

Observers in Austria imaged the Reusable Experimental Spacecraft during its third mission using a 14-inch telescope operated by Felix Schöfbänker, showing two solar panels attached at the aft end while the vehicle was flying nose-first relative to its orbit.

The Long March 2F 'G' variant uses the Shenzhou spacecraft's abort system while the 'T' variant has an interchangeable payload attachment system atop the second stage.

The third mission initially placed the spaceplane into an approximately 333 by 348 kilometer orbit before it maneuvered to about 601 by 609 kilometers.

The Long March 2F family includes a Shenzhou-launching 'G' variant and a cargo-carrying 'T' variant.

The second Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission initially placed the vehicle into a 346 by 593 kilometer low Earth orbit and later raised it to approximately 593 by 608 kilometers.

Shenlong is reported to have conducted a suborbital flight in late 2010 or early 2011 that passed above the Kármán line and landed afterwards.

The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft’s second mission began on August 5, 2022, from Jiuquan on a Long March 2F/T.

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