China's Gande-1 satellite tracks Falcon 9 to lunar impact, testing space surveillance

3dnews.ru (Russian)

A Chinese satellite, Gande-1 01, tracked a spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage until it struck the Moon on August 5, 2026, demonstrating Beijing's space surveillance capabilities. The stage's mass and trajectory were precisely known from the January 15, 2025 launch of the Blue Ghost and Resilience lunar landers, making the impact an ideal test for refining lunar impact models used to plan future bases. Gande-1 01, launched July 24, 2026, is the first of a planned 120-satellite Chinese debris-tracking network due by 2030. Scientists tracked the stage days before impact and imaged the crash site.


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