China Launches New Shepard Clone
Plus another ISRO launch fails & NASA's search for life continues
CAS Space Launches Li Hong-1
CAS Space the successful launch and recovery of its Li Hong-1 suborbital spacecraft on Monday. The reusable rocket and capsule, complete with passenger windows, are a near copy of the New Shepard suborbital vehicle that Blue Origin uses for space tourism and microgravity experiments.
“Li Hong-1 reached an altitude of around 120 km. The experimental capsule experienced more than five minutes of microgravity environments,” CAS Space wrote on social media. “The successful recovery of the capsule has validated the design and provided crucial data for subsequent space tourism vehicles. Meanwhile, by achieving a precise landing zone for the booster stage, the constraints and algorithms for vehicle re-entry have been rigorously tested. What we have learned will be crucial for reusable orbital vehicles.
“The mission carries several experimental projects, including LAM-MG-R1 (laser-additive manufacturing) and space-radiation-induced rose seeds. The Li Hong vehicle series and the subsequent in-orbit platforms under development will provide a low-cost, go-to solution for the age of space manufacturing and space agriculture,” the company added.
Li Hong-1 will provide competition for Blue Origin’s New Shepard and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.
ISRO Loses Another One
An Indian PSLV rocket failed for the second straight time on Monday when its third stage tumbled out of control. The failure follows the loss of a PSLV rocket last May that was also caused by a third-stage failure.
PSLV’s unsuccessful return to flight resulted in the loss of 15 or 16 Indian and foreign payloads. The primary payload was EOS-N1, a hyperspectral Earth observation satellite built by the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation.
Another payload was the Kestrel Initial Demonstrator (KID), a small reentry capsule built by Orbital Paradigm of Spain. KID was a subscale demonstrator for the Kestrel reusable capsule that will carry space manufacturing and microgravity payloads in orbit. The rocket was to have put KID on a suborbital trajectory to test the capsule’s heat shield.
It was India’s third major failure in a year. A PSLV third stage anomaly resulted in the loss of the EOS-09 Earth observation satellite on May 18, 2026. Last January, the NVS-02 navigation satellite was unable to reach its intended orbit due to a failure of a propellant valve on the spacecraft after a successful launch by a GSLV Mk II rocket.
There has been criticism online about ISRO’s competence and alleged lack of transparency. Critics say the space agency has not been publicly releasing Failure Analysis Committee reports on previous anomalies.
NASA’s Search for Life Continues
On Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 40 rideshare payloads from Vandy. The satellites included not one, not two, but…wait for it…three NASA space telescopes. The satellites included:
Pandora. The small satellite will study the atmospheres of exoplanets as they pass in front of (i.e., transit) the stars they orbit. Pandora will provide data on planets worthy of further study by the James Webb Space Telescope as NASA continues its search for habitable exoplanets beyond our Solar System.
Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS). The 6-U CubeSat will study the ultraviolet emissions of around 10 red dwarf stars.
Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope (BlackCat). The 6U CubeSat will measure gamma ray bursts and other astronomical events.
SpaceX’s Twilight mission was the company’s fourth launch of the new year.