Welcome to our twenty-third Monthly Dose of Space! In this monthly newsletter, we bring you major news from the past month. The end of August concludes a busy two-thirds of the year, so let's jump into the past month!

News of the Month

August was filled with wild stories around the globe and beyond! China has started testing key components of its crewed Lunar program, SpaceX launching its 10th Starship flight, and a new moon has been found around Uranus!

Lanyue Lunar Lander begins full-scale testing

China's Lanyue lunar lander, which is expected to transport humans to the Moon's surface in 2029, completed tests on August 7. The spaceship was connected to an extraterrestrial gravity simulator to simulate lunar gravity.

In order to confirm control coordination among the numerous thrusters, a full-scale Lanyue spacecraft equipped with its different thrusters and four main engines—minus its nozzles for vacuum optimization—flew within the gravity simulator for the tests, which were reportedly conducted by more than 10 people. Regarding the tests that were conducted, Sun Xingliang of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the following.

"Among these, ignition tests are the top priority. The tests needed to complete over 10 ignition tests including normal flight, emergency flight, and takeoff from different lunar surface slopes, fully verifying the lander's landing and takeoff control scheme, propulsion system, electrical system, and interface compatibility between systems."

While nothing has been confirmed, further tests are planned for the Lanyue spacecraft. Ranging from in-space tests (similar to that of Apollo 9) and even a demo lunar landing, to safely test all aspects of the mission profile.

China's Moon Rocket Roars

On August 15, the China Manned Space Agency and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology completed a major milestone for the nation's Lunar program. Atop Launch Complex 301, at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in the Hainan region of China, the Long March 10 core stage completed a 30-second static fire. During this test, seven YF-100K engines roared to life, generating upwards of 892 tons of thrust. 

The test showed and confirmed that all seven engines, along with their propellant feed systems, ignition timing, and engine gimbal control mechanisms, could be started, controlled, and operated simultaneously, according to the agencies and businesses involved. Following the test, the China Manned Space Agency added:

“The successful test laid an important technical foundation for the manned lunar exploration mission. In the future, the Long March 10 series of carrier rockets will be fully used in manned space engineering missions, together with the Mengzhou manned spacecraft, to realize the upgrading and development of [China’s] manned space-to-earth transportation system.”

The Long March 10 rocket's under-construction launch pad, Launch Complex 301, was purportedly chosen for this test because current test stands are unable to handle the enormous thrust loads—roughly 892 tons—that are anticipated. Engineers can also test the rocket's systems in the launch environment from where it will eventually launch.

Large Binary Star System discovered in the Galaxy

The NGC 3603 Nebula/Starburst region as seen by ESO. This stellar nursery is 22,000 light years away. The zoomed in image of the core was taken with Hubble's Widefield Planetary Camera 2; showcasing the extreme proximity of stars in the region. Credit: NASA/ESO/Wolfgang Brandner

Recently, Astronomers have used legacy Hubble data and new recordings to further peer into the NGC 3603 Nebula. Within this sliver of the Milky Way, stars are being born at a rapid rate compared to other regions, attributed to more compressed gas. These zones of intense star formation are called "starburst regions." Thus, for scientists and researchers across the world, these corners of our galaxy hold immense importance as hotbeds for data to refine our models of the universe. A team at Lowell University, spearheaded by Sarah Bodansky, noticed a faint flicker in the core of the cluster when looking at archival Hubble data. This would later turn out to be a binary star system—but not just any, rather one of the largest ever found.

Two stars, one weighing 93 times that of our Sun, the other 70, are orbiting each other in extreme proximity. Every 3.8 days, the two giant stars complete an orbit around each other. Meaning for the time it takes Earth to complete an orbit around the Sun, the stars in NGC 3603-A1 have completed 100. While studying the binary system is ongoing, this is living proof of how chaotic dense stellar regions are, and why they are vital to study.

Starship Flight 10

Following a tricky few months and launches for the program, with disaster striking in space and on the pad, SpaceX took to the skies once more with Starship. This time, things were different. This launch saw the V2 vehicle finally make it to re-entry for the first time. We also saw the first payload deploy from the rocket, using dummy satellites, validating the dispenser system. While some hiccups were still experienced along the way, such as an energetic event at T+46:59, and some heavy aft-flap damage, Ship 37 safely landed in the Indian Ocean–missing its mark by just three meters.

Click here to read our full breakdown.

Uranus has a new Moon!

The discovery of a new moon orbiting Uranus was announced on August 19th by astronomers using images captured with the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). The new moon, known as S/2025 U1, orbits close inside the planet's rings and is thought to be around 10 kilometers in diameter.

S/2025 U1 hadn't been found in previous years because of its small size and poor brightness. However, with the help of James Webb and ten 40-minute long-exposure pictures of Uranus, a small, dim speck of light can be seen orbiting the ice giant.

With this new finding, Uranus now has twenty-nine moons in total, giving it the third-highest moon count in our solar system.

Launches of the Month

This month saw 30 launches worldwide, continuing a busy year. If you want to know what each launch was we have them all listed below!

August 1st - Falcon 9 for Crew-11

NASA's Crew-11 mission, with astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, as well as JAXA's Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos' Oleg Platanov, to the International Space Station blasted off atop of a Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A, in Florida. Supporting this mission was booster B1094, for its third mission, and landing at Landing Zone 1 back at Cape Canaveral.

August 3rd - New Shepard for NS-34

Blue Origin conducted the NS-34 suborbital tourism mission from its West Texas launch site, carrying Arvi Bahal, Gökhan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, J.D. Russell, and Justin Sun. The vehicles performing this mission were booster NS4, flying for the fifteenth time, and capsule RSS First Step, making its fourteenth flight.

A Falcon 9 launched from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, carrying twenty-eight Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1080 supported this mission, flying for the twenty-first time and landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.

August 4th - Long March 12 with GuoWang Group 07

Atop a Long March 12 from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, the seventh batch of GuoWang satellites, with 9 onboard, headed to low Earth orbit. With that launch, the GuoWang constellation had 57 spacecraft in orbit.

August 5th - Electron for 'The Harvest Goddess Thrives'

Rocket Lab launched a synthetic aperture radar satellite to low Earth orbit for iQPS, from Launch Complex 1B on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. This launch carried the twelfth satellite of thirty-six for iQPS' imaging constellation that aims to image the same spot on Earth every ten minutes.

August 8th - Jielong-3 with Future Mobility Group 04

A Jielong-3 flew into low Earth orbit, from a sea launch ship off the coast of Rizhao, carrying 11 satellites for Geespace, a subsidiary of automaker Geely, to expand the Geely Future Mobility Constellation. With its launch, the constellation now has 41 spacecraft in orbit.

August 11th - Falcon 9 with KF-02

From Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, 24 satellites for Amazon's Kuiper constellation were sent into low Earth orbit, bringing it to 102 spacecraft in orbit. Supporting the deployment of more Kuiper satellites was Falcon 9 booster B1091, performing its first flight and landing downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

August 13th - Ariane 6 with MetOp-SG-A1

Flying out of French Guiana, Ariane 6 headed to sun-synchronous orbit carrying the first of six MetOp-SG satellites from EUMETSAT. The MetOp-SG-A1 weather satellite is designed to improve the accuracy of European weather forecasts.

August 13th - Vulcan with USSF-106

United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 41, in Florida, to begin the secretive USSF-106 mission with a flight direct to geostationary space. At least two military spacecraft were onboard, with one being Navigation Technology Satellite-3, set to perform positioning, navigation, and timing experiments.

August 13th - Long March 5B with GuoWang Group 08

A Long March 5B, China’s most capable launch vehicle, flew from Launch Complex 101 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, carrying ten satellites into polar orbit for the GuoWang constellation. With the flight, the state-backed constellation has expanded to 67 satellites in orbit.

Falcon 9 flew from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California, carrying twenty-four Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1093 supported this mission, for its fifth flight with a landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.

Twenty-eight more Starlink satellites were delivered to low Earth orbit by a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 40. Supporting this mission was booster B1085 for its tenth flight, with a landing downrange on the done ship 'Just Read The Instructions'.

August 15th - Zhuque-2E for an unknown customer

LandSpace launched its third Zhuque-2E rocket from Launch Area 96A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, heading for low Earth orbit. Sadly, during its flight, the vehicle suffered from a failure, that the company is yet to disclose, resulting in a loss of the rocket and its payload.

August 17th - Long March 4C with Shiyan-28B-02

Out of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, a Long March 4C flew into low Earth orbit carrying the Shiyan-28B-02 satellite. The satellite is expected to work with its counterpart, Shiyan-28B-01, for space environment monitoring and detection as well as related technical tests.

August 17th - Long March 6A with GuoWang Group 09

Five satellites for China's GuoWang mega-constellation were launched to a near-polar orbit atop of a Long March 6A from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. This launch brought the constellation up to 72 satellites in orbit.

Twenty-four Starlink satellites were sent into low Earth orbit via a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California. Booster B1088 supported this mission for its ninth flight, landing downrange on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You'.

August 19th - Kinetica-1 with seven satellites

CAS Space's Kinetica-1 flew into sun-synchronous orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, carrying seven customer satellites. Two of those were ThumbSats from Mexico for space education outreach programs, while the rest were remote sensing satellites, AIRSAT-05, Tianyan-26, as well as three Duogongneng Shiyan-2 spacecraft.

August 20th - Soyuz 2.1a with Bion-M No. 2

A Soyuz 2.1a launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying a recoverable satellite carrying various experiments and instruments to low Earth orbit.

August 21st - Angara 1.2 with a Cosmos spacecraft

An Angara 1.2 blasted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome carrying a classified payload into Earth orbit.

August 22nd - Falcon 9 with USSF-36

From Launch Complex 39A, in Florida, a Falcon 9 flew into Earth orbit carrying the U.S. Space Forces' secretive X-37B spaceplane into Earth orbit. Supporting this mission was booster B1092 for its sixth flight, landing back at Landing Zone 2 in Cape Canaveral afterwards.

Another twenty-four Starlink satellites were sent into low Earth orbit atop of a Falcon 9 flying from Space Launch Complex 4E. Booster B1081 supported this mission, flying for the seventeenth time and landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.

August 23rd - Electron for 'Live, Laugh, Launch'

Rocket Lab's Electron flew from Launch Complex 1A, on the Māhia Peninsula, carrying five satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. Four of those satellites are on confidential missions, but one of them was EchoStar's Lyra-2 Internet of Things spacecraft.

August 24th - Falcon 9 with CRS-33

SpaceX launched its thirty-third resupply mission to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 40, in Florida, later arriving on August 25th. Flying for the mission is Cargo Dragon C211, for its thrid mission, with launch supported by booster B1090, making its seventh flight, which landed downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

August 25th - Long March 8A with GuoWang Group 10

A Long March 8A lifted off from Commercial Launch Pad 1 at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, heading for low Earth orbit carrying 9 satellites for the GuoWang internet mega-constellation. With the launch, the constellation has expanded to 81 satellites.

August 26th - Falcon 9 with eight satellites

Falcon 9 heads to sun-synchronous orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E, in California, carrying Luxembourg's National Advanced Optical System, LEAP-1 from Dhruva Space, two Pelican satellites from Planet Labs, Capella Space's Acadia-6, and three satellites for Pixxel's hyperspectral imaging constellation. Supporting this mission was booster B1063, performing its twenty-seventh flight and landing back a Landing Zone 4.

August 27th - Starship-Super Heavy for its tenth flight test

SpaceX's in-development fully reusable Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle flew its tenth flight test from Starbase, Texas, utilizing Ship 37 and Super Heavy Booster 16. Both vehicles successfully splashed down after the flight and completed their test objectives.

Another Falcon 9 flew from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying twenty-eight Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1095 supported this mission for its second flight, landing on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions' downrange.

Another twenty-eight Starlink satellites were carried into low Earth orbit via a Falcon 9 flying from Launch Complex 39A. Supporting this mission was booster B1067, flying for a record-setting thirtieth time and landing downrange on the drone ship 'A Shortfall Of Gravitas'.

Out of Space Launch Complex 4E, a Falcon 9 carried twenty-four Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Booster B1082 supported this mission for its fifteenth flight, landing on the drone ship 'Of Course I Still Love You' downrange.

Yet another Falcon 9 launched twenty-eight more Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40. Supporting this launch was booster B1077, for its twenty-third flight, with a landing downrange on the drone ship 'Just Read The Instructions'.

Launches to look out for in September!

September will continue a busy year for worldwide launches. Listed below are all of the launches expected or likely to happen next month, launches on the 1st of September may have already occurred due to when this newsletter is published.

Another batch of Starlink satellites are expected to head to low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E atop of Falcon 9.

Falcon 9 will fly again from Space Launch Complex 40, heading for low Earth orbit with a batch of Starlink satellites.

Yet more Starlink satellites are planned to be send to low Earth orbit atop of Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A.

September 5th - Long March 3C with a to-be-annouced payload

A Long March 3C is said to be preparing to lift off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, carrying a currently unannounced payload to geostationary space.

September 6th - Long March 6A with a to-be-annouced payload

A Long March 6A is expected to launch from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, heading for a near-polar orbit.

From Space Launch Complex 4E, a Falcon 9 is expected to carry more Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit.

September 8th - Falcon 9 with Nusantara Lima

A Falcon 9 is planned to carry Indonesia's Nusantara Lima telecommunications satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40.

September 10th - Falcon 9 with a Tranche 1 mission

For the U.S. Space Development Agency, a Falcon 9 is expected to launch from Space Launch Complex 4E for the Tranche 1 Transport Layer B mission.

September 11th - Soyuz 2.1a with Progress MS-32

A Soyuz 2.1a is planned to launch the Progress MS-32 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

September 15th - Falcon 9 with NG-23

Northrop Grumman's twenty-third cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, using its Cygnus spacecraft, is set to launch atop of a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40.

September 23rd - Falcon 9 with three satellites

From Launch Complex 39A, a Falcon 9 will fly toward the Sun-Earth L1 point carrying NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) and Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, as well as NOAA's Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1).

September 25th - Altas V with KA-03

Twenty-seven Kuiper satellites are preparing to launch atop of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 41.

September 29th - New Glenn with ESCAPADE

Blue Origin is preparing to launch its New Glenn rocket for the second time, carrying NASA's twin Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) spacecraft to Mars.