12 January 2021
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CSAC) has made significant advances in several key technologies for the new engine, which will have a much higher fuel efficiency than those currently in service. The unnamed hydrogen/oxygen engine is expected to eventually replace the YF-77 which currently powers the first stage of China’s Long March CZ-5 family of heavy-lift vehicle rockets. Instead of the YF-77’s gas-generator cycle, the new rocket will use a staged combustion cycle, which increases efficiency by burning through the propellant more thoroughly, but also poses engineering design and build challenges.
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11 January 2021
China's Standardization Administration announced 4 BDS (BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) related standards, which were published on its official website on 9 January. The new standards cover the areas of data format, digital map applications, ground-based augmentation systems, and atomic clocks.
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09 January 2021
CASC completed a reliability tests for its CZ-5B high-thrust oxyhydrogen engine on 8 January at its rocket engine test facility in Beijing. The engine type is prepared for the CZ-5B rocket launching the space statio modules with the first CSS module expected for orbiting in spring. The engine ran 500 seconds during the test – the same amount of time of its designed full work cycle. It is the 4th time the engine has been tested with 500 seconds, showing great ability of extending service life, one of the goals of the test. The analysis and inspection will be conducted after the test.
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Link to CNSA YouTube video of testing the CZ-5 YF-77 engine one year ago with views of the test facility in Beijing

08 January 2021
The Chang'e 4 lander and rover resumed work for the 26th lunar day on the far side of the Moon. The lander woke up on 8 January at 3:13 BJT, and the Yutu 2 rover Yutu woke up on 7 January at 10:29 BJT, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Centre of the China National Space Administration. During the 26th lunar day, Yutu 2 will move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity. Yutu 2 will take panoramic photos, and its infrared imaging spectrometer, neutral atom detector and lunar radar will continue to carry out scientific explorations. Research teams will analyze the detection data and release the scientific results.
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