75 Mice, a Secret Spaceplane & a New Moon: Major Space News Roundup (Aug 19–20, 2025)
On August 19, CAS Space launched the Lijian-1 (Kinetica-1) Y10 from Jiuquan, deploying seven satellites including ThumbSat-1 and ThumbSat-2 (~100 grams each) built in Mexico. The Lijian-1 is the eighth flight in the Kinetica-1 series and CAS Space says it can loft 50+ satellites per mission with launch costs below $10,000 per kilogram to orbit, including an X-band radar Earth-imaging satellite and a Tianyan-26 cubesat. Roscosmos launched the Bion-M No.2 biosatellite on August 20 aboard a Soyuz-2.1b from Baikonur, carrying 75 mice, over 1,000 fruit flies, microorganisms, plant seeds and cell cultures for a 30-day microgravity and radiation exposure. NASA’s
