Spaceflight Daily Report, Sunday 5th July 2026

Image credit: CNSA (left), JAXA (right), not to scale

First Image of Kamo'oalewa

CNSA have published the first image of asteroid 469219 Kamo'oalewa taken by the Tianwen-2 probe, and officially announced the probe's arrival which occurred yesterday. Kamo'oalewa is a quasi-moon of Earth discovered in 2016, and the new image shows it to be around 30 by 20 metres in size. Tianwen-2 will explore the asteroid for nine months and take a surface sample, which is planned to be returned to Earth in 2027. This is the 20th minor planet to be visited up-close by a spacecraft, not counting moons and comets, and the smallest visited so far. [Source: CNSA]

Hayabusa2 Flyby of Torifune

JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe, on its extended Hayabusa2♯ mission, flew by asteroid 98943 Torifune at 0930 UTC at a relative speed of 5 km/s and an altitude of a few hundred metres above the asteroid's surface, and captured photographs as it passed. Torifune is a near-Earth asteroid discovered in 2001 with a diameter of about 450 metres, and is the 21st minor planet to be visited up close, not counting moons and comets. Hayabusa2's next stop is the currently unnamed asteroid 1998 KY26, a small rapidly rotating rock which it will rendezvous with in 2031 after it's performed two slingshot manoeuvres around the Earth to get into the correct orbit. [Source: JAXA]

Launch of Starlink Group 10-50

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 1050 UTC, or 0650 local time (EDT). This was carrying Starlink Group 10-50, a batch of 29 satellites for the constellation. It was the 661st flight of the Falcon 9, and the 13th flight of booster B1090, which successfully landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. Aboard the booster there was also a pair of "Fabships" developed by Besxar Space Industries to test the manufacture of semiconductors in space. [Source: SpaceX]

Launch of Qianfan Polar Group 15

CASC/CALT launched a Long March 8A (Chang Zheng 8A) from Wenchang in Hainan at 1343 UTC, or 2143 local time (CST). This was carrying Polar Group 15, a batch of 20 satellites for the Qianfan (SpaceSail) internet constellation. This is the most Qianfan satellites launched on a single rocket so far, and brings the total size of the constellation up to 238 satellites. This was the 16th launch of the Long March 8 series, and the 9th launch of the 8A configuration. [Source: HICAL]

Tiangong Activities

China Manned Space (CMS) published their weekly video on the activities of the crew of the Tiangong space station. The crew deployed an instrument called MUSICO from the Mengtian module. Developed at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, this instrument measures greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. The crew also used the station's famous air fryer to bake some cakes, among other routine research and maintenance. [Source: CMS]