China marks a major milestone in 'space farming'

China has made significant strides toward realizing its vision of "space farming", with a groundbreaking experiment conducted by Chongqing University providing crucial support for this endeavor.

Recently, a team led by Professor Xie Gengxin successfully hatched a butterfly pupa in an unmanned, microgravity space environment.

During a news conference on Monday, the university announced the success of the "ShennongKaiwu 2" Space Ecosystem Experiment, which was carried by AZSPACE's Dier-5 Space Experimenter and launched aboard the Kuaizhou-11 Y8 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on Dec 13, 2025. After the launch, the payload entered low Earth orbit, marking the beginning of its in-orbit bio-test mission.