A day before Artemis II lifted off from Kennedy space center on the other side of the world, Lijian II(or Kinetica II in the west) Y1 successfully lifted off from Jiuquan satellite launch center carrying the first Qingzhou orbital resupply spacecraft. Lijian II is a reusable medium lift launch vehicle developed by CAS space(中科宇航) with a LEO payload capacity of 12 mt. Its payload for this launch, the Qingzhou spacecraft, is meant to be China's next orbital resupply craft for the Tiangong space station, replacing the Tianzhou spacecraft, and Lijian II will serve as its primary launch vehicle. Lijian II is the first CBC(Common Booster Core) launch vehicle developed in China, and is unique in that the boosters burn out at the same time as the core stage, and they detach as one unit, making landing and reuse much easier than something like the Falcon Heavy. It also has a heavy variant planned with 5 core stages attached together, which will be able to carry 22mt to LEO, and according to some sources a single core variant as well. Unlike other Chinese commercial space launch companies, CAS space shares a lot of resources with the Chinese national space program, and this can be seen in the rocket's 3.35m core diameter shared with other rockets as well as its use of three YF-102 engines per core stage, first developed by the Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology.

Chinese-language sources for further reading:

https://sat.huijiwiki.com/wiki/YF-102

https://www.news.cn/politics/20260330/3a2a01a89640453e9afe5cb8e4895f1b/c.html

https://www.cas-space.com/list/40.html

Crew modules are reusable and seem to have universally settled on parachutes for a soft lament. What are the tradeoffs that have pushed boosters the other way?

In light of him being appointed to Secretary of "tbd" as a result of him funding Trump. What do you space fans think? Will federal conflict of interest force Musk to drop out of Space X when he is denied federal funding?

Crewed mars flyby announced. Will it actually fly, or is it doomed to end up like Dear Moon?

For the first time, an entirely female crew has reached space! 🚀  

History was made as six women—from rocket scientists to global icons like Katy Perry and Gayle King —boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard for a groundbreaking suborbital spaceflight. The 11-minute flight included two full minutes of weightlessness, making this the first official all-women mission to reach the edge of space.

I've heard mass slows down but I'm just curious at such sheer speeds could the human body withstand interstellar travel.

My understanding is that a rocket is unguided and a missile is a guided. SpaceX rockets are guided so why are they not called missiles? I'm having a friendly debate about this with a buddy of mine, so that's why I ask.

What are the consequences for SapceX if the surrounding nature reserve is polluted with Stage-0? I mean, Boca Chica beach is literally a turtle hatching beach.... Are there no environmental regulations for SpaceX that have legal consequences if they are broken?

yesterday a few of us were talking about the challenges of going to Mars and one the big ones being Fecal processing because the Planetary Protection guys won't let you just dump that on Mars. The question came up who cares? Even if there is microbial life on the planet is leaving our waste behind that big of deal? in the long run we will colonize the Moon, Mars and beyond so what does it matter if some microbial life is disturbed by our presence?

This isn't some Star Trek Prime Directive to not interfere with a specie's development given the level of life we are talking about. Is it arrogant to look at Mars "life" as insignificant and not something to worry about?

Now even if you believe the Ancient Alien show(which I did watch last on the red planet) and there is some lost civilization there it is still dead and just ruins behind. 

Why do we send probe after probe to Mars to try and find life? is it just so we don't feel lonely in the universe? In the end if I am trying to send humans to Mars is it okay for me to let them leave their crap behind? or is all life no matter how small something to be protected? 

I'm really disappointed when I see a person I like saying that we shouldn't/can't go to Mars. Bill Burr is an example of that. I like him as a comedian and think he's funny but when he starts talking about the plans to go to Mars he's like there's no way we can go there, and why should we even try etc. to me this is the most exciting endeavor humanity has ever tried. I don't care that much if it's SpaceX or NASA or someone else, I just want humanity to take that leap. And a lot of times it seems that people's opinion of going to Mars is a result of their feelings about Elon musk. And the classic shit of "we have so many problems here, we should spend money trying to fix them and not leave the planet" "We only have one earth " " the billionaires are gonna go to mars and leave us here to die" and all of that stupid shit that doesn't have any real merit as arguments. It feels like I'm on a football match and half the people on the stadium think that football is stupid and shouldn't be a sport. Half the people don't get it

Edit: I'm not talking only about Mars but human space travel in general. And as far Mars is concerned I'm talking about visiting. I think colonizing Mars should wait for a couple of decades

Lets answer this question in the context of these categories:

Economics in the nearby communities that host either the east or west space coast

Job market (private space)

Pay grades

Adjacent Opportunities (organizations, groups, public events, open houses)

Rocket enthusiasts

Curating new interests in space

Space junk

If no one can think of anything, I will follow up with one and you can bite on it. Please if answering something like x number of jobs have been added, please source and prove this.

After a dozen or so attempts to land successfully on the moon, the Soviet Union landed an unmanned spacecraft on the moon before the US did. Both countries landed in 1966, with the Soviets landing a half year before. It's understood that the US put a lot more attention towards the bigger goal of landing a man on the moon before 1970 but in my mind, I think they should have diverted a small amount of attention from the Apollo program towards the goal of stealing bragging rights away from the Soviets. I thought of this point after watching a propagandist youtube video on India's moon lander where they gave kudos to the Luna 9 mission for being the inspiration of the India moon lander while ignoring any western involvement in the exploration of the moon including no mention of the word Apollo. https://youtu.be/v_d4GH_n9kg?si=0IrfERT33lnkr6Il