China Space Program

China last year performed 64 orbital rocket launches and finished building its own space station, but the country is planning an even busier year for 2023.

China is working on a new lunar rover that will begin to explore the south pole of the moon around 2026.

China's Yutu 2 rover is still operating after four years on the moon and has returned new images from the lunar far side.

A classified Chinese technology verification satellite that launched earlier this month has released an object into orbit alongside it, for reasons that remain mysterious.

The three crew members of Shenzhou 15 decked out their in-space living quarters in red to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit on Sunday (Jan. 22).

A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China on Saturday (Jan. 14), sending 14 commercial satellites to orbit.

China's Zhurong Mars rover remains silent despite being expected to wake up in December — but there's still hope that the vehicle could rise from its extended slumber.

A Long March 2D rocket launched the classified Yaogan 37 and Shiyan 22A and 22B satellites into orbit on Friday (Jan. 13) from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday (Jan. 12), carrying the APStar 6E satellite to orbit.

China's first space station is now complete in Earth orbit — and on a new set of coins. The People's Bank of China has issued gold and silver coins in celebration of China's Tiangong space station.

China's space agency appears to have lost contact with the Tianwen 1 orbiter and Zhurong rover from the nation's 1st Mars mission.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson believes China could attempt to stake a claim over portions of the moon.

Exotic rock fragments returned to Earth from the lunar surface by Chang'e 5 in 2020 hint at diversity in volcanic activity in the moon's distant past.

China is looking to put its first astronauts around the end of the decade and we're now getting glimpses of how this plan may play out.

China's last space launch of 2022, which lifted off on Thursday (Dec. 29), has prompted a warning of falling rocket debris from the Philippine Space Agency.

Peking University wants to build the largest optical telescope in Asia and close the gap in astronomy capabilities with the rest of the world.

Earth displays its characteristic blue color as China's completed Tiangong space station, adrift high above the planet, appears in the foreground.

NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft made an epic flight to the moon, Russia invaded Ukraine and SpaceX set a few records.

China has released a small test satellite into orbit from its recently completed Tiangong space station.

China has revealed that four international experiments will fly on its historic Chang'e 6 sample-return mission to the far side of the moon in 2025.