10 January 2019
China's Chang'e 4 probe has started carrying out a series of scientific research tasks involving multiple countries and organizations since it landed on the far side of the Moon on 3 January, CNSA announced on 10 January. A neutron radiation detector aboard the lander, developed by Germany, and a neutral atom detector on the rover, developed by Sweden, have both switched on for test operations. Queqiao carries a low-frequency radio astronomical instrument developed by the Netherlands. The radioisotope heat source is a collaboration between Chinese and Russian scientists. A micro-imaging camera by Saudi Arabia aboard the micro satellite is orbiting the Moon and has sent back a photo in June 2018, capturing Earth and the Moon together. NASA has offered the orbital data of its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Chinese side has provided the landing timing and location, CNSA said.
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CCTV footage including interviews with project scientists

07 January 2019
China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre conducted an emergency training in the first days of the New Year in an effort to prepare itself for more launch missions in 2019. In a simulated emergency where a fuel leakage was detected just before a satellite launch mission, the technicians on the ground were immediately organised to deal with the incident. The training followed the real launch mission procedures, which usually included preparations, emergency response and test launch.
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07 January 2019
China started out the year by doing something that no nation has done before: It landed a spacecraft and an accompanying rover on the far side of the moon with an ambitious scientific payload package and an exciting mission ahead to study the interior structure of the moon with the help of ground-penetrating radar, among other things. Almost equally impressive from a technical standpoint, China successfully placed a communication relay satellite into a lunar halo orbit to enable the command of, and communication with, both the spacecraft and rover, which do not have line-of-sight views of Earth for direct radio contact. I had mixed feelings about these events. Now we have come to the moment of China's ascendency in space exploration. We must face the reality that it has, in a small but significant way, shown the world that it can be the first to accomplish things in space, too.
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07 January 2019
China's private space sector raised plenty of money last year despite the chilly investment climate, thanks to national support for the industry and a changing environment. In 2018, three rocket start-ups - OneSpace, LandSpace and iSpace, also known as Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology - held a total of eight rounds of fundraising, each raising 700 million yuan ($101.95 million) to 800 million yuan.
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