Aerospace-intensive event! The United States is executing a crewed lunar orbit mission, and China's "Xiong'an No. 1" satellite is ready to launch.

Global aerospace activity has been accelerating recently, with China and the United States releasing major signals almost simultaneously.

According to CCTV News, local time on the evening of April 1, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s new lunar rocket “Space Launch System” lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying out the crewed lunar-orbit mission “Artemis 2.” This is the first time the United States has sent astronauts to the Moon since 1972, marking a new stage in humanity’s deep-space exploration.

Meanwhile, according to The Science and Technology Daily, China’s first “Xiong’an-made” satellite, “Xiong’an 1,” has completed its rollout, and is poised for launch. Multiple key technologies have achieved breakthroughs, and the commercial space industry chain is accelerating into shape.

In the commercial satellite internet track, the competitive landscape is also changing. A Wall Street Insight article noted that the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, said that Amazon is in talks with satellite telecom operator Globalstar about a potential acquisition, with the intention of challenging SpaceX’s Starlink in the low Earth orbit satellite internet market.

On April 3, the 2026 Space Computing Industry Conference will be held in Beijing. In its prospectus, CAS Space disclosed the first-flight timetables for its products along multiple lines.

United States: Astronauts head to the Moon again after half a century

According to CCTV News, local time on the evening of April 1, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s new lunar rocket “Space Launch System” lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying out the crewed lunar-orbit mission “Artemis 2.”

This is the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 that the United States has sent astronauts to a lunar orbit, which is of landmark significance.

On the commercial space front, Amazon is seeking to accelerate its catch-up to SpaceX through the acquisition of Globalstar.

As mentioned in a Wall Street Insight article, citing the Financial Times in the UK and people familiar with the matter, talks have been ongoing for a relatively long time, but the two sides are still consulting on several complex issues. As of now, there is still no final agreement, and negotiations may still change or even break down.

One of the core obstacles to the acquisition is that Apple holds approximately 20% equity in Globalstar, and Globalstar has committed to reserving 85% of its network capacity for Apple to use in iPhone satellite short message services, making the deal structure even more complex.

Amazon’s project to enter the low-orbit satellite internet is named “Leo.” At present, there are only a little over 180 satellites in orbit, a huge gap compared with Starlink’s more than 10,000 active satellites in orbit. In February this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told investors that Leo is one of the “incremental opportunities” among the series of opportunities that this $220 billion e-commerce giant is about to pursue.

China: Advancing on multiple fronts—satellites, computing power, and rockets

China’s commercial space sector has recently shown momentum with breakthroughs in multiple areas. From satellite manufacturing to space computing power, and to launch vehicles, progress is being released intensively across every link of the industry chain.

China’s first “Xiong’an-made” satellite, “Xiong’an 1,” after eight months of R&D design and production testing, successfully rolled off the production line on October 22, 2025. It is now poised for launch. According to The Science and Technology Daily, the satellite has broken through three major key technologies:

First, the “Bai Ze” high-performance onboard computer successfully cracked the satellite’s “computing bottleneck.” Second, the “Chi Yu” large-size flexible solar arrays effectively broke through the “energy constraint” problem. Third, the new-generation Hall-effect electric propulsion system “Jin Wu” innovatively adopted argon as the electric propulsion power source.

“Xiong’an 1” is the first satellite completed and rolled off the production line in the Xiong’an New Area, indicating that the Xiong’an New Area has taken a substantive step forward in the field of commercial space manufacturing.

On the building of the industrial ecosystem, the 2026 Space Computing Industry Conference will be held on April 3 in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone (Yizhuang), at the Tongming Lake Exhibition Center, where representatives from multiple sectors—including leading space computing enterprises, satellite manufacturing companies, and rocket manufacturing companies—will attend.

The conference will announce the establishment of the industry’s first “Space Computing Professional Committee,” and launch the “Beijing Space Computing Innovation Center.” At the same time, the management committee of the Economic-Technological Development Zone will release a “list of key common technical challenges” for space computing. The conference will set up three major thematic tracks, covering the full ecosystem chain including top-level design of space computing, commercial space, and core components and other elements—reflecting China’s strategic plan to deeply integrate computing power with space-related industries.

As for launch vehicles, in its prospectus, CAS Space disclosed a detailed product first-flight timetable. For the Leijian series, the Leijian 2 heavy rocket is planned to have its first flight in 2028, while the Leijian 3 is planned for a first flight in 2030. For reusable launch vehicles, the Leihong 2 is planned to have its first flight from late 2026 to the first quarter of 2027, and the Leihong 3 is planned to have its first flight in 2028.

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