I know this 70t LEO configuration, it was just that I didn't think of the purpose of having a reusable rocket in this payload range, in the same line of not seeing the need for Falcon Heavy.
China's Space Program News Thread
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Ah I see, fair enough.
I suppose it's partly a matter of requirements.
I unironically think that there is a geopolitcal future that may emerge by 2-3 decades time, whereby the high ground of warfare will be in space, and the few leading nations will need to annually launch enough satellites that collectively weigh a supercarrier's equivalent tonnage into LEO, just to maintain competitiveness with each other.
Doing 50t LEO reusable is a start, but 100t, 150t or 200t would be even better.
1. Never heard of by now. At least the CSS phase II does not have a rotating main structure.
2. Not by now. Most of the private ventured companies are busy testibg their first rockets in the recent several years. It's tough to survive.
3. Yes. CZ-8 had been testing technologies for reusable first stage (details unknown). i-Space just finished its Hyperbola-2 rocket's whole rocket crash-landing test successfully.
Speaking of reusable tech, this just happened:
CASC says they've successfully completed a test flight of suborbital craft.
CASC says they've successfully completed a test flight of suborbital craft.
Sounds like another test flight of that VTHL craft. After being checked out it took off again from JSLC, made an suborbital flight and then successfully landed horizontally at Alxa Right Banner airfield, thus making the first time a Chinese suborbital craft made repeated flight.
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Today China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced that its reusable lifter vehicle just successfully finished a reused VLHL suborbital flight test.
The vehicle, which has been launched and recovered before, was vertically launched from Jiuquan Satellites Launch Center and after a programmed suborbital flight it was landed horizontally at Alxa Right Banner Airport about 200 km away.
It's the first time successful test from China.
This is an orbital space plane, not the suborbital launch vehicle mentioned in the article.
escobar
Brigadier
BJ-3B bigger than BJ-3A and use different optoelectronic systems (one camera vs two camera) called "Tianshu" and "Tianqing".
The Tianshu camera has the following main features compared to the Tianqing:
- Large aperture and correspondingly brighter field of view;
- Increased focal length;
- Low-noise CMOS sensor as the main panchromatic image receiver, applicable for both frame shooting and video, with a wider spectrum bandwidth;
- A line of Chinese CMOS-matrices with temporary charge accumulation for obtaining multispectral images;
- Own high-performance processor, providing optimal shooting parameters and various image reading modes, with the possibility of self-correction and parameter recording;
- Twice the flow of digital information;
- Automatic focusing on objects located at different distances from the spacecraft;
- Active camera stabilization during operation;
- Vertical adjustment of the optical system
I agree with you. This is why I think the EU's space based solar power project actually does make sense, even though it's inefficient and non-viable economically. The process of reorienting industry to put that much mass in orbit and gaining technical and industrial skills for manufacture of large and energy intensive installations in space has the potential to give the EU a first mover advantage in terms of serious, industrially relevant investment in space. In my opinion, there is no other feasible path for the EU to geopolitical contention in the future that I can see. The US has too much influence on them to allow them their own military that's effective enough to say "Thanks but no thanks, we can handle our own defence" to the US military, Russia may be a threat they still need to think about for the foreseeable future, and I think it's unlikely they'll ever be able to contest China (plus the most likely way they would do so is as a junior partner to the US, preventing them from developing seriously as a superpower).
I think the next most likely path for them is coming into serious conflict with China where both of them want African resources, and having a significant chance to win against China because they have a lot more history with colonial administration and a lot more ability to exert control in Africa than China does. If they can win against China in Africa and thereby solidify their hold on African natural resources while spooking their militaries enough to whip them into shape (and ideally into a single force), I could see that prompting a serious return of the EU. The reason I still don't think it's possible is that I don't see the US letting Europe run the show there, even in a world post Taiwan reunification where the US has mostly given up on westpac. That's why I think their only feasible path to superpower status is by acting first on space and trying to achieve dominance there as quickly as possible. I still have doubts they'll be able to do it, but it's the only path I see for them.
There was an announcement of a broadband constellation with 13000 satellites recently.
If each satellite is equivalent to a Starlink at 300kg, that is 3900 tonnes of satellites.
That would need 56 launches of this 70t LEO reusable rocket configuration
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