CSIS releases annual assessment of global trends in the weaponization of space spacenews.com/csis-releases-…

Landspace is gearing up for a 10-km-level hop test. New Zhuque-3 hop test article, now including grid fins, is being prepared, with the ~200 second test flight at Jiuquan spaceport expected in June.
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/03jxn_wtX_AK…

The Shenzhou 18 crew spacecraft and Long March 2F (Y18) rocket were rolled out to the pad at Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert this morning. Launch to Tiangong space station expected April 25. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NZakZzyngMEf…

NASA to look for new options to carry out Mars Sample Return program spacenews.com/nasa-to-look-f…

In a followup MSR town hall meeting, NASA's Sandra Connelly outlines the revised architecture that would allow a 2040 sample return: Earth return orbiter launch in 2030, sample retrieval lander (now with an RTG) launching in 2035. The Perseverance rover would return to Jezero…

NASA will announce at a briefing starting in minutes it will seek 'innovative designs' for returning samples from Mars in response to a report that said MSR was over budget and behind schedule:

nasa.gov/news-release/n…

Fox says NASA plans to spend $310M on MSR in the current 2024 fiscal year. (Just above the low end of the range of $300M to $949M.)

The recent solar eclipse seen from the Moon by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. lroc.asu.edu/images/1368

Tiandu-1 seen from Tiandu-2 as the pair separate in lunar orbit on April 3.

ILRS: director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences says Turkey has applied to join the International Lunar Research Station. ria.ru/20240408/turts…

Thailand joins China-led ILRS moon base initiative spacenews.com/thailand-joins…

Engineers have confirmed that corrupted memory aboard my twin #Voyager1 has been causing it to send unreadable data to Earth. It may take months, but our team is optimistic they can find a way for the FDS to operate normally again: go.nasa.gov/3vGOBhw

Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 separated from each other yesterday, April 3. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jpy4xs0UtLff…

China appears to be trying to save stricken spacecraft from lunar limbo spacenews.com/china-appears-…