China Ballistic Missiles and Nuclear Arms Thread
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This is freebeacon.com . They always say that US officials told them this and that. Already denied before.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
They're interpreting it as an anti-satellite test because of how far up it went. Not sure what they're talking about since Chinese missions before have gone further that 6000 miles into space. They can interpret any space mission as for military purposes hence why they bar any American entity from partnering with China in space. Getz accuses China of being hypocritical for calling for no weapons in space then disguising missions like this one as testing weapons in space. The US hasn't agreed to such a ban so China doesn't have to abide by something that never was even discussed in the first place. It's no different from the US knocking out the satellite with Aegis. We know it was really a test of capabilities and having nothing to do with any safety issues as advertised.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Well Kroko having a healthy skepticism and different point of view make for lively discussion in the forum. But constantly dismissing Chinese advances as bogus or unreliable rumor is tiring. Wait before making knee jerk comment
Freebeacon is not the only sources that confirm high orbit Missile test . Apparently Reuters do the same
U.S. sees China launch as test of anti-satellite muscle: source
ReutersBy Andrea Shalal-Esa | Reuters – 4 hrs ago
Reuters/Reuters - Visitors tour the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan province October 18, 2007. REUTERS/China Daily
By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, one U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday.
China launched a large missile on Monday that reached 10,000 km (6,250 miles) above the earth, the highest suborbital launch seen worldwide since 1976, according to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
China has said the rocket, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in western China, carried a science payload to study the earth's magnetosphere.
However, a U.S. defense official said U.S. intelligence showed that the rocket could be used in the future to carry an anti-satellite payload on a similar trajectory.
"It was a ground-based missile that we believe would be their first test of an interceptor that would be designed to go after a satellite that's actually on orbit," said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, declined to comment specifically on the rocket launch, but said China was clearly taking a more aggressive posture in space.
"Any time you have a nation-state looking to have a more aggressive posture in space, it's very concerning," Rogers said at a Reuters Cybersecurity Summit.
The United States remains concerned about China's development of anti-satellite capabilities after Beijing shot a missile at one of its own defunct satellites in orbit in 2007, creating an enormous amount of debris in space.
Monday's rocket launch was similar to launches using the Blue Scout Junior rocket that were conducted by the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s for research on the Earth's magnetosphere, McDowell said in an emailed response to questions.
He said all the previous suborbital launches above 10,000 km (6,250 miles) had been conducted by the United States. All China's previous missile tests went to less than 2,000 km (1,250 miles), although Beijing had launched orbital vehicles higher, including to the Moon, he said.
Most scientific suborbital launches are at most 1,500 km (940 miles) or so, McDowell added. The 1976 launch was Gravity Probe A, when NASA and McDowell's institute worked together to launch an atomic clock to 10,280 km (6,425 miles).
Monday's launch came less than a week after U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter unveiled what he called a "long overdue" effort to safeguard U.S. national security satellites and develop ways to counter the space capabilities of potential adversaries.
U.S. military space officials are taking steps to improve the resilience of national security satellites in orbit, the defense official said. These include using new wave forms to make it more difficult for adversaries to jam signals from space, putting U.S. sensors on commercial satellites and using terrestrial high frequency communications.
Last week, the Pentagon released an 83-page report on Chinese military developments that highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said Beijing was pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.
(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by David Brunnstrom)
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
This is the most exhaustive analysis by Zorya first posted at CDF by Koxinga
In summary
This was a large rocket that went to high altitude. The primary driver of the mission was almost certainly to test the rocket. The payload effectively went along for the ride. The type of rocket is yet to be revealed but it is either a new development or a significantly new variant of an existing space launcher or missile.
2013 May 13 Launch – China Speaks
Posted on 2013 May 14
Following the Launch, the China Academy of Sciences produced a news release. This is zarya.info’s translation:
2013 May 13 at 13:00 UTC, Chinese scientists once again successfully tested a high-altitude scientific exploration vehicle. The experiment used a high-altitude sounding rocket with a Langmuir probe, energetic particle detectors, magnetometers, an apparatus to release barium powder and other scientific payloads. The equipment was used for exploration of the ionosphere, high-energy particles and magnetic fields in near-Earth space, measuring their strength and structure.
Sounding rockets are an effective detection tool for space exploration and scientific experiments. Rocket-borne instruments can be used to study atmospheric layers and structure, and build a vertical profile of it together with data on the ionosphere, geomagnetic field, cosmic rays, Solar ultraviolet and X-ray emissions, meteorite dust and other day-to-day physical phenomena.
The experiment was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Preliminary analysis by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows the experiment obtained data from various heights in the space environment and measured the vertical distribution of scientific data. It achieved the desired purpose, allowing China to accumulate valuable data to help develop its own space environment monitoring and to enhance the safety of space activities.
What Does the Announcement Actually Say?
The described mission in reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s “Vertikal” programme from the 1970s and 1980s. A high altitude sounding rocket based on a missile/space launcher was used to send a payload as high as 1500 kilometres above the Kapustin Yar launch site. The objectives of the Vertikal missions were very like the description applied to the current Chinese launch.
The Chinese document is as notable for what it doesn’t say as it is for actual content. There is no mention of the launch vehicle used and no indication of the height achieved. It potentially fuels the idea that this was a rocket test rather than a space probe and that the instrumentation was mounted on board because it was an opportunity that presented itself.
Update
On May 14, the Chinanews website published some further detail using an interview with Gong Jian of the National Space Science Center, a deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said that the altitude reached was about 10,000 kilometers and that the canister of Barium powder released its content at apogee.
There it would have produced a glowing cloud as the Barium atoms became excited and ionised by solar radiation. Movement and expansion of the ionised cloud would have been used to study the magnetosphere at the release point. By measuring the position of the cloud against the night sky from several locations on the earth, the precise position and trajectory of the payload could have been determined. At the very least, it would have confirmed that the desired apogee was reached. A similar technique using Sodium allowed measurement of the trajectories of early Soviet lunar probes.
Trajectory
The launch time was chosen so that the rocket ascended against a dark sky. It did mean that the exhaust plume it was seen by the public over large tracts of China between Xichang and the coast.
The NOTAM zone was closer to Xichang than for an orbital mission and is indicative of a relatively-steep trajectory. It also shows that the rocket headed south-east. With the high apogee, it would have travelled a long way out over the Pacific Ocean, taking it towards Yuan Wang 3, one of China’s ocean-going tracking ships that was stationed on the equator at about 160° east longitude. The ship would have been able to receive data from the lower segment of the downward path as the probe dropped below the horizon as seen from the mainland.
map
The Hong Kong movie referred to in an earlier zarya.info blog entry seems to show burnout of the rocket. The earlier suggestion that it shows the rocket tilting in flight is probably a misinterpretation of the way the vapour trail was dragged to one side by high altitude winds after the rocket flame was extinguished. Using the position of the Moon and its distance above the horizon in the movie as a measurement reference, burnout occurred about 500 kilometres above the Earth.
Moving back the launch time by ten minutes between the orginally-timetabled May 12 event and the actual launch on May 13 is intriguing. There is no obvious natural event that would necessitate it, so it points to the possibility of an interaction between the ascending rocket and something already in orbit.
One scenario is that the trail and Barium cloud were monitored by a satellite. Howevever, looking at all Chinese satellites launched since the beginning of 2007 fails to produce a candidate that was nearby on the two days, and ten minutes earlier on the second one. That takes us into the realms of the ASAT theorists where the ‘target’ might have been an inert rocket body or similar, of which there are many in orbit. It could have been aimed at a very close pass without actually hitting the target.
In summary
This was a large rocket that went to high altitude. The primary driver of the mission was almost certainly to test the rocket. The payload effectively went along for the ride. The type of rocket is yet to be revealed but it is either a new development or a significantly new variant of an existing space launcher or missile.
In summary
This was a large rocket that went to high altitude. The primary driver of the mission was almost certainly to test the rocket. The payload effectively went along for the ride. The type of rocket is yet to be revealed but it is either a new development or a significantly new variant of an existing space launcher or missile.
2013 May 13 Launch – China Speaks
Posted on 2013 May 14
Following the Launch, the China Academy of Sciences produced a news release. This is zarya.info’s translation:
2013 May 13 at 13:00 UTC, Chinese scientists once again successfully tested a high-altitude scientific exploration vehicle. The experiment used a high-altitude sounding rocket with a Langmuir probe, energetic particle detectors, magnetometers, an apparatus to release barium powder and other scientific payloads. The equipment was used for exploration of the ionosphere, high-energy particles and magnetic fields in near-Earth space, measuring their strength and structure.
Sounding rockets are an effective detection tool for space exploration and scientific experiments. Rocket-borne instruments can be used to study atmospheric layers and structure, and build a vertical profile of it together with data on the ionosphere, geomagnetic field, cosmic rays, Solar ultraviolet and X-ray emissions, meteorite dust and other day-to-day physical phenomena.
The experiment was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Preliminary analysis by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows the experiment obtained data from various heights in the space environment and measured the vertical distribution of scientific data. It achieved the desired purpose, allowing China to accumulate valuable data to help develop its own space environment monitoring and to enhance the safety of space activities.
What Does the Announcement Actually Say?
The described mission in reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s “Vertikal” programme from the 1970s and 1980s. A high altitude sounding rocket based on a missile/space launcher was used to send a payload as high as 1500 kilometres above the Kapustin Yar launch site. The objectives of the Vertikal missions were very like the description applied to the current Chinese launch.
The Chinese document is as notable for what it doesn’t say as it is for actual content. There is no mention of the launch vehicle used and no indication of the height achieved. It potentially fuels the idea that this was a rocket test rather than a space probe and that the instrumentation was mounted on board because it was an opportunity that presented itself.
Update
On May 14, the Chinanews website published some further detail using an interview with Gong Jian of the National Space Science Center, a deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He said that the altitude reached was about 10,000 kilometers and that the canister of Barium powder released its content at apogee.
There it would have produced a glowing cloud as the Barium atoms became excited and ionised by solar radiation. Movement and expansion of the ionised cloud would have been used to study the magnetosphere at the release point. By measuring the position of the cloud against the night sky from several locations on the earth, the precise position and trajectory of the payload could have been determined. At the very least, it would have confirmed that the desired apogee was reached. A similar technique using Sodium allowed measurement of the trajectories of early Soviet lunar probes.
Trajectory
The launch time was chosen so that the rocket ascended against a dark sky. It did mean that the exhaust plume it was seen by the public over large tracts of China between Xichang and the coast.
The NOTAM zone was closer to Xichang than for an orbital mission and is indicative of a relatively-steep trajectory. It also shows that the rocket headed south-east. With the high apogee, it would have travelled a long way out over the Pacific Ocean, taking it towards Yuan Wang 3, one of China’s ocean-going tracking ships that was stationed on the equator at about 160° east longitude. The ship would have been able to receive data from the lower segment of the downward path as the probe dropped below the horizon as seen from the mainland.
map
The Hong Kong movie referred to in an earlier zarya.info blog entry seems to show burnout of the rocket. The earlier suggestion that it shows the rocket tilting in flight is probably a misinterpretation of the way the vapour trail was dragged to one side by high altitude winds after the rocket flame was extinguished. Using the position of the Moon and its distance above the horizon in the movie as a measurement reference, burnout occurred about 500 kilometres above the Earth.
Moving back the launch time by ten minutes between the orginally-timetabled May 12 event and the actual launch on May 13 is intriguing. There is no obvious natural event that would necessitate it, so it points to the possibility of an interaction between the ascending rocket and something already in orbit.
One scenario is that the trail and Barium cloud were monitored by a satellite. Howevever, looking at all Chinese satellites launched since the beginning of 2007 fails to produce a candidate that was nearby on the two days, and ten minutes earlier on the second one. That takes us into the realms of the ASAT theorists where the ‘target’ might have been an inert rocket body or similar, of which there are many in orbit. It could have been aimed at a very close pass without actually hitting the target.
In summary
This was a large rocket that went to high altitude. The primary driver of the mission was almost certainly to test the rocket. The payload effectively went along for the ride. The type of rocket is yet to be revealed but it is either a new development or a significantly new variant of an existing space launcher or missile.
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