China carried out a record-breaking 25 space launch missions in the first half of the year, with no failure, indicating a steady progress in building up the country's spaceflight capabilities.

The space launch missions included sending a new crew to the orbiting Tiangong space station, adding new satellites to the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, and launching record-setting number of satellites on a single rocket.

On May 30, the Shenzhou-16 crew was sent into space. Over the past month, the crew members have been working in the space station as planned for the phase of application and development.

The Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship went through the replacement of more than 100 parts and improved reliability tests, and has become more intelligent than the previous Shenzhou craft.

China has also launched more than 100 communication, remote sensing and navigation satellites in the January-June period.

On June 7, China successfully launched a Lijian-1 Y2 carrier rocket with 26 satellites onboard, setting a domestic record for a largest number of satellites lifted in one go.

Just eight days later, a Long March-2D rocket blasted off, placing 41 satellites in orbit.

In the meantime, the country is seeing more and more commercial space launches.

Following the successful launch of the Kuaizhou-1A, CERES-1 Y5, SQX-1 and TL-2 Y1 commercial carrier rockets in the first half of the year, the Tianmu-1 meteorological constellation and the Jilin-1, China's first commercial constellation, have taken shape.

Currently, China has more than 350 commercial satellites orbiting in space.

Meanwhile, a batch of innovation-driven aerospace projects is also gather pace.

From January to June, Asia's largest test stand for high-thrust liquid rocket engines was delivered, the main engine for China's manned lunar landing mission completed a 3,300-second test run, and the research and development of a new generation of manned spaceship, moon lander, and spacesuit for lunar exploration fully kicked off.

In the second half of the year, China will launch the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, a new generation of ocean color observation satellites, the FY-3 06 Satellite and other spacecraft.

The total number of China's space missions this year will be nearly 70.