Elon Musk stated that SpaceX could potentially achieve a lunar autonomous-growth city in less than 10 years while a comparable settlement on Mars would take more than 20 years.

Musk asserted that launches to Mars are possible only when planetary alignment occurs every 26 months, requiring about six months of travel.

The Wall Street Journal published on February 6 that SpaceX had abandoned plans for a 2026 Mars mission and was focusing on an uncrewed lunar landing demonstration as soon as March 2027.

Musk and SpaceX have not publicly provided detailed plans for a lunar settlement.

Musk defined progress in May at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas by the time required to establish a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.

Musk asserted that flights to the Moon could be launched roughly every 10 days with an approximate two-day trip time.

SpaceX is developing the Starship vehicle to enable a large-scale human presence on Mars.

Firefly Aerospace posted on X about the visit by Texas Girls School students.

Firefly Aerospace positioned the visit as contributing to the early stages of the students’ STEM education.

Firefly Aerospace used social media (X) as a channel to communicate and document its outreach activity with students.

The visiting students engaged with Firefly Aerospace engineers, technicians, and operational infrastructure dedicated to launch vehicle and space system development.

Over 40 students from the Texas Girls School visited Firefly Aerospace’s facilities.

The visit gave the students the opportunity to observe a real production environment at Firefly Aerospace.

The visit by Texas Girls School students is an example of industry outreach that connects aerospace companies with STEM education.

Rocket Ranch is Firefly Aerospace’s test and development site and serves as one of the company’s primary operational hubs in the U.S. aerospace sector.

Firefly Aerospace shared images and content showing the Texas Girls School students during their visit.

Jielong-3 is believed to be 31 meters tall when on a launch platform and to weigh about 145,000 kilograms when prepared for launch.

PRSC-EO2 is planned to be used for land mapping, development planning, environmental monitoring, natural resource surveying, agricultural support, and disaster monitoring and response.

All four stages of Jielong-3 are believed to burn solid propellant, with the first stage generating approximately 200 tons of thrust.

A Pakistani astronaut is expected to visit the Tiangong Space Station later in 2026.

Pakistan previously received satellite launches in January 2026 with PRSC-EO1 and in October 2025 with PRSC-HS1.

The Space Environment Monitoring Satellite was built by the China Academy of Space Technology using commercially available platforms.

The Beijing Institute of Control Engineering supplied the propulsion system for PRSC-EO2.

The Jielong-3 on the February 12 launch was headed to sun-synchronous orbit carrying multiple payloads.

Professor Ma Peifeng is the Chief Designer of the satellite project associated with the DeepSeek large language model adaptation.

The February 12 launch was the tenth orbital launch from China in 2026.

The Shutianyu satellite cluster joins two earlier satellites launched in October 2025 to form a five-satellite system intended to detect, monitor, and image orbital debris.

China Great Wall Industry Corporation organized the orbital delivery of PRSC-EO2.

The China Academy of Space Technology provided development support for the PRSC-EO2 spacecraft.

The February 12 Jielong-3 mission was the launch vehicle’s ninth mission.

A Jielong-3 launch vehicle lifted off from an offshore dedicated launch ship near Yangjiang, Guangdong in the South China Sea at 14:37 China Standard Time (06:37 UTC) on February 12, 2026.

The first two stages of Jielong-3 have a diameter of 2.64 meters and the vehicle’s fairing has a diameter of 3.35 meters.

China Rocket, a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, operates the Jielong-3 commercially.

The Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission led development of the PRSC-EO2 spacecraft.

Chinese University of Hong Kong-1 will operate as an Earth observation spacecraft with one-meter resolution to support urban design and development.

Jielong-3 has previously flown from sea launch platforms in the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and the Yellow Sea.

The Space Environment Monitoring Satellite is expected to provide real-time processing of detected data to monitor orbital environment, debris, and other spacecraft.

Jielong-3 has a published payload capacity of 1,600 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

The DeepSeek large language model was adapted at the satellite level using lightweight adaptation and workflow restructuring to enable onboard target identification and feature extraction from multispectral data.

Chinese University of Hong Kong-1 (CUHK-1) was launched on the Jielong-3 mission and originates from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Geespace launched three satellites—Shutianyu-03, Shutianyu-04, and Shutianyu-05—on the February 12 mission.

Power Infrared Satellite-A is planned to frequently monitor remote parts of China’s power grid using two- and three-dimensional imaging.

Jielong-3, also called Smart Dragon-3, is a four-stage solid-fueled launch vehicle manufactured by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

Chinese University of Hong Kong-1 will run the DeepSeek large language model in orbit to process collected data in real time and downlink processed products.

Pakistan’s PRSC-EO2 optical remote sensing spacecraft was the primary payload on the February 12 Jielong-3 flight.

Power Infrared Satellite-A was deployed on the February 12 Jielong-3 flight and was developed by Changguang Satellite Technology Co Ltd in cooperation with the State Grid Electric Power Research Institute Co Ltd.

The February 12 Jielong-3 launch followed launch attempts that were delayed in late December 2025 and late January 2026.

The February 12 launch was China’s third launch for an international customer in 2026 following two Algerian remote sensing spacecraft launched from Jiuquan in January.

The launch was Amazon Leo’s first deployment by a European launcher.

The mission was the first in a series of 18 launches contracted between Arianespace and Amazon Leo.