There’s good news and bad news in the latest scientific assessment of Earth’s vital ozone layer, which helps to protect life on Earth by absorbing the Sun’s ultraviolet light.

Reports say that a new Chinese launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen and methane failed during its maiden flight on Wednesday after liftoff from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

During the first seven months of the year, five new satellite launch vehicles from Europe, China, Russia and South Korea flew successfully for the first time. As impressive as that is, it was a mere opening act to a busy period that could see at least 20 additional launchers debut around the world.

Chinese launch company LandSpace announced on Wednesday that it has completed a series C+ funding round valued at $175 million (1.2 billion yuan) to fund its Zhuque-2 booster.

Landspace raised $73 million (500 million yuan) in a C round last December.

BEIJING, Aug. 29, 2019 (LandSpace PR) — On August 28, Chinese leading commercial launcher developer and launch service provider LandSpace Technology Corporation Ltd. (LandSpace) announced during MAKS-2019 that the company is seeking and accepting payloads from around the world for the maiden launch of its proprietary ZhuQue-2 (ZQ-2) launcher powered by a LOX/LCH4 liquid-propellant rocket engine (LRE).