China's Star Vision Technology launched the Samarkand-2028 hyperspectral Earth observation satellite on August 5 alongside Indonesia's Lampung-1; the Samarkand-2028 carries an artificial intelligence module developed by Uzbekistan's space agency Uzcosmos, marking a shift from Uzbekistan buying Chinese satellites to contributing core software components

The rate and unit cost of reaching Earth orbit, dominated by US-based SpaceX and China's state launch industry, set the pace for satellite megaconstellations and the global space race.

The race to lower launch costs and raise cadence, led by SpaceX and China, determines who can operate at scale in space and who gets left behind.

Megaconstellation batches and a surprise Long March 12B maiden flight push cadence to one launch every ~2.5 days