Rocket Report: Chinese firm first to orbit, Starhopper makes its big leap

Enlarge / The Rocket Report is published weekly. (credit: Arianespace)

Welcome to Edition 2.08 of the Rocket Report! This week's report comes from Brownsville, Texas, where we came to see if SpaceX's Starhopper can actually hop into the sky 20 meters. (Spoiler alert, it did!) Also, there's loads of news in the world of smallsat launchers this week, including a big breakthrough in China.

As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.

First private Chinese firm reaches orbit. iSpace became the first Chinese private firm to achieve orbit with Thursday's successful launch from a national space center in the Gobi Desert, Space News reports. The company, formally named Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., launched the Hyperbola-1 launch vehicle from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 1am Eastern on July 25.

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