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Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a record 165 orbital missions in 2025, accounting for 85% of U.S. launches and nearly double China’s total. Dominated by Starlink deployments, this pace was enabled by the Falcon 9’s reusable design, which saw its 500th successful landing this year.
Chinese scientists are geoengineering deserts using blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) to form living crusts on sand. Led by researcher Zhao Yang, the technique from the Shapotou Desert Research Station could treat over 5,000 hectares in five years, supercharging China’s Great Green Wall initiative.
NASA is weeks away from launching Artemis II, its first crewed Moon mission since 1972. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will test the Orion spacecraft on a 10-day voyage, paving the way for a lunar south pole landing later this decade.
The US has granted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) an annual licence to import American chipmaking tools into its Nanjing fab, easing uncertainty after exemptions expired on December 31. The approval keeps production of 16-nanometre chips running in China while highlighting Washington’s carefully balanced approach to semiconductor controls.
Chinese scientists at Zhejiang University have built the CHIEF1900, the world’s most powerful hypergravity centrifuge. With a capacity of 1,900 g·tonne, it can compress time to simulate dam failures, earthquakes, and millennia of soil pollution inside a laboratory.
In a world first, Han Binbin, a player with cerebral palsy, competed in a national Chinese Chess Association tournament using only a non-invasive brain-computer interface. The event in Hainan marks a pivotal step for BCI technology moving from medical labs into public competitive sports.
A U.S. Department of Defense report reveals China’s plan to operate nine aircraft carriers by 2035, the largest build-up in the Indo-Pacific since WWII. The fleet will include advanced carriers like the Type 003 Fujian, directly challenging U.S. naval dominance.
Scientists at the UK’s Worcester Polytechnic Institute, led by Professor Nima Rahbar, have developed a carbon-negative Enzymatic Structural Material (ESM). Using an enzyme to convert CO2 into calcite, the material achieves 25.8 MPa strength while sequestering 6kg of carbon per cubic meter, offering a sustainable alternative to concrete.
New imagery from Shanghai’s Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard suggests China may be developing a mobile, truck-mounted electromagnetic catapult. The system, aligning with concepts from Tiantao Technology, could launch 2.2-ton stealth drones from remote locations, offering the PLA a novel way to generate airpower without traditional runways.
Vestas has won its first offshore wind order in South Korea, a 390 MW deal for the Shinan-Ui project. The order, featuring 26 V236-15.0 MW turbines, is a key milestone for both the Danish manufacturer and South Korea’s clean energy ambitions.
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