China's commercial space industry ushers in new year with busy schedule

China's commercial space industry has ushered in the new year with a busy schedule, with both commercial launch vehicle and commercial satellite companies scrambling to make timely preparations for fulfilling ambitious launch missions for the year.

In 2025, China will launch its first commercial liquid rockets of multiple types, along with large-scale deployment of its satellite internet and commercial remote sensing constellations.

Private rocket company LandSpace, located in Jiaxing City of east China's Zhejiang Province, expects its Zhuque-3 reusable rocket to make its maiden flight in 2025. As a result, staff members are actively assembling and welding the module of the launch vehicle.

The Zhuque-3 carrier rocket, which will be China's first rocket made of stainless steel, is 4.5 meters in diameter, with a total length of 76.6 meters. Its liftoff weight is about 660 tons, with a carrying capacity of 21.3 tons.

The rocket will use Tianque methane engines developed by LandSpace, which is headquartered in Beijing. Its first stage will have nine Tianque-12B engines, which can be reused up to 20 times. Zhuque-3's second stage will employ a Tianque-15B vacuum engine. "In 2025, everyone is energetic and working overtime daily to ensure the mission's success. We look forward to the successful maiden flight of ZQ-3 in 2025," said Hu Shaoxiong, head of the Assembly and Welding Group A at LandSpace.

At the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the atmospheric detection and remote sensing satellite developed by Galaxy Space is currently undergoing testing and is scheduled for launch in January.

China's commercial space industry ushers in new year with busy schedule

South Korea's court on Tuesday granted the extension of the warrant to arrest the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol, which was issued by the same court on Dec. 31 last year.

The joint investigation unit, composed of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), the National Office of Investigation (NOI) and the defense ministry's investigative headquarters, said in a notice that the warrant to arrest Yoon was issued again in the afternoon.

The unit requested the Seoul Western District Court to re-issue an arrest warrant against Yoon on Monday when the first warrant expired after failing to arrest Yoon last Friday.

It marked the first time in the Asian country's modern history that an arrest warrant was issued against a sitting president.

The validity term of the second warrant could reportedly be longer than the first one which was valid for a week.

The CIO investigators and police officers attempted to arrest the impeached president in the presidential residence on Jan. 3, but it failed as the presidential security service blocked the execution of the warrant.

The impeachment motion against Yoon was passed in the National Assembly on Dec. 14 last year and was delivered to the constitutional court to deliberate about it for up to 180 days, during which Yoon's presidential power is suspended.

Yoon, who was named by investigative agencies as a suspected ringleader on an insurrection charge, declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3, but it was revoked by the National Assembly hours later.

South Korea's court grants extension of warrant to arrest President Yoon

South Korea's court grants extension of warrant to arrest President Yoon