China's Space Program News Thread

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BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe, impacted the moon at 4:13 p.m. Beijing Time (0813 GMT) Sunday, said sources with the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The satellite ended its 16-month mission Sunday when it hit the lunar surface at 1.50 degrees south latitude and 52.36 degrees east longitude.

Chang'e-1 began to reduce its speed at 3:36 p.m. Beijing Time (0736 GMT) under remote control by two observation and control stations in east China's Qingdao and northwest China's Kashi.

This was the first phase of China's three-stage moon mission, which will lead to a landing and launch of a rover vehicle around 2012.

Chang'e-1 was launched into space on Oct. 24, 2007, and sent the first full map of the moon's surface back to China one month later.

 

[AssassinsMace]

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Render of China's Hainan launch facility.

 

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China's jumbo rocket "carrying capacity factor" world's second largest: expert

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2009-03-03 21:53:23 Print

BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese space expert said here on Tuesday that China's Long March 5 large-thrust carrier rocket, currently under development and scheduled to be put into service in 2014, uses less fuel for the same load than any other rocket in the world except Boeing's Delta 4 Heavy.

The jumbo rocket's "carrying capacity factor" -- a key parameter reflecting rocket's performance -- was "the world's second largest", said Liang Xiaohong, vice president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

The Long March 5's "carrying capacity factor" is 0.0146 while Boeing's Delta 4 Heavy is 0.0175, the world's largest, he said.

When carrying the same load, a rocket with a higher factor needs less fuel, said Liang, also a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, which opened its annual session on Tuesday.

With a maximum payload capacity of 25 tonnes, Long March 5 is expected to be able to send lunar rovers, large satellites and space stations into space after 2014.

Liang said "the rocket is currently China's best with the largest payload among the nation's rocket lineup" and was expected to deliver astronauts onto moon.

He said last year the first launch of the Long March 5 is most likely to happen in Wenchang of the southernmost island province of Hainan, where a new satellite launch center is under construction.

The new launch center, scheduled to be put into operation in 2014, is close to the equator and hence save rocket fuel.

Liang said the development of the carrier rocket would produce a "leap forward" in China's rocket technology, in terms of performance and payload.

The Chinese government approved the development of the rocket in 2007 following two decades of feasibility study. It will be manufactured at a facility in Tianjin, a coastal city near Beijing.

China currently employs its self-developed Long March 3 series rocket for most space missions, including delivering the country's first lunar probe Chang'e-1 in October 2007.

The country's first spacewalk by Zhai Zhigang greatly inspired the nation in September. Earlier reports said the priority for this year is to assemble prototypes of Tiangong-1, an unmanned space module to be put into orbit "as early as the end of 2010," the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft and their carrier rockets.

Chinese scientists also plan to build a new Long March 2F rocket, which carried the Shenzhou-7 manned spacecraft into space last year.

 

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Shenzhen to build 4 to 5 satellites every year

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2009-03-03 10:01:45 Print

BEIJING, March 3 -- The aerospace industry is expected to one day become the new growth engine of Shenzhen's economy with the establishment of a satellite manufacturing company on Sunday.

Upon completion, Shenzhen Aerospace Spacesat Co. Ltd. is expected to develop six to eight types of satellites and produce four to five satellites every year. The satellites will be used for global navigation, telecommunications, remote sensing and space exploration.

The enterprise was jointly founded by China Spacesat Co. Ltd., Harbin Institute of Technology and Shenzhen Aerospace Science and Technology Research Institute. It will be part of a research, development and manufacturing base for the aerospace industry in Shenzhen, company officials said Sunday.

A research institute subordinate to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the main contractor for the Chinese space programs, will also move into the base in Shenzhen. On Sunday, national and city government officials broke ground for the Satellite Building, an infrastructure project at the base in the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Park. Costing 160 million yuan (23.39 million U.S. dollars), the 250,000-square-meter building will be used for research, development, designing, packing, testing and manufacturing related to satellites.

"Shenzhen has always attached great importance to the aerospace industry, which can gradually become the new growth engine of the city's economy," said Mayor Xu Zongheng. "With the backdrop of the global financial crisis, this new project can turn challenges into opportunities with the joint efforts of the three parties involved."

An aerospace industry chain will be formed in Shenzhen after the research institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. moves into the base, analysts said. The base in Shenzhen will also be capable of developing and testing some core components and accessories of satellites, according to Ma Xingrui, general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

It was reported previously that the State-owned company will gradually move its core business of space manufacturing and aerospace technology applications to Shenzhen.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
Editor: Wang Hongjiang

 

[Engineer]

Re: china manned space - news and views

One thing struck me as strange. All the pictures released of Tiangong 1 have one thing in common....they are are from the front.

Not surprising, considering the number of nozzles, their type, size, and placement are information that can give a good estimate of the spacecraft's capabilities.

 

[bladerunner]

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I was just looking at this weeks issue of Businessweek where I noticed a remark that China had been squeezed out of the Galileo Project because of security concerns.
When did this actually happen, and what was the story behind it.?

 

[AssassinsMace]

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You can probably guess and hit the ballpark.

When China signed on, the US was concerned and put on pressure. Then there were those in the EU who started to have security concerns themselves. So China was being squeezed out after paying $?. Supposedly Japan and other countries were given free access to parts of Galileo that China was denied when they were a "partner." Now karma is at work because according to the "law" whoever establishes frequencies first gets to lay claim to them. China is getting there GPS system up before the EU and are claiming certain frequencies that the EU wanted for Galileo.

Don't know the in and outs of why and how on the technology and laws on this but that's basically it.

 

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China Scores Major Coup in Satellite Space Race
Posted by: Frederik Balfour on March 23

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The first time I blogged about China’s satellite rocket launch business, certain readers pointed out to me that I had strayed woefully out of my depth. And were it not for the persistent efforts of a PR flak at French rocket launch company Arianespace to keep me up to date, I would have missed an extremely significant development in the industry. On March 10, China scored a major commercial coup when it signed a deal to launch a “bird” on behalf of French satellite-fleet operator Eutelsat Communications in 2010.

While China has launched satellites on behalf of economically lesser nations such as Venezuela, which sent its satellite skyward aboard China’s Long March Rocket last October, it’s been more than a decade since it bagged a deal from a first world country.

According to Space News [sorry, this requires a subscription], Eutelsat chose the Chinese rocket because it was cheaper, could be launched sooner [western launch companies such as Arianaspace have a long waiting list] and because the service was comparable to Arianespace’s. Even more important, however, is the fact that because the Eutelsat satellite contains no U.S. components, thereby excluding it from restrictions under the U.S. law on International Traffic in Arms Regulations, governs exports of U.S. defense-related technology and bars owners of satellites using U.S. parts from launching on Chinese rockets. The deal is especially worrisome for Washington because Eutelsat’s customers include the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ITAR was designed to keep sensitive U.S. technology from falling into the wrong hands—namely China. But ironically, the export ban served to spur European companies such as the French-Italian joint venture satellite maker Thales Alenia Space to design its own birds using no U.S. parts, thereby allowing customers like Eutelsat to launch using whomever they like. Some folks in Washington are already worried that ITAR ban is causing too much in lost sales and are advocating the law be reexamined under the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, China has been busily developing its own satellite technology, to meet its own growing communications [and intelligence] needs, and those of customers such as Nigeria, which became the country’s first foreign commercial satellite client when the Long March 3B rocket blasted off in May 2007.

And that’s not all. According to a piece on the International Herald Tribune website, China may have getting the jump on Europe in developing its own version of the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite Service. Europe’s own answer to GPS is called the Galileo navigation satellite project that hopes to place 30 orbiting satellites in position by 2013, five years behind schedule. China was an original Galileo partner back in 2003, but it got squeezed out by the Europeans over security concerns.

So now it appears China is going it alone, and if it gets its own system up before the Europeans, it will have dibs on the radio frequency the Europeans hope to use, according to the first mover clause under the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the United Nations. Considering the nearly $2 trillion hoard of foreign exchange China is sitting on, and the anemic state of the European economy, I’d put my money on the Chinese in this race.

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[bladerunner]

Re: china manned space - news and views

You can probably guess and hit the ballpark.

When China signed on, the US was concerned and put on pressure. Then there were those in the EU who started to have security concerns themselves. So China was being squeezed out after paying $?. Supposedly Japan and other countries were given free access to parts of Galileo that China was denied when they were a "partner." Now karma is at work because according to the "law" whoever establishes frequencies first gets to lay claim to them. China is getting there GPS system up before the EU and are claiming certain frequencies that the EU wanted for Galileo.

Don't know the in and outs of why and how on the technology and laws on this but that's basically it.

Did they get their money back?
Seeing China already has some of its system satellites up , at what stage can they start to claim the frequencies?,

Cause as the saying goes, "It aint over till the fat lady sings"

 

[AssassinsMace]

Re: china manned space - news and views

Not sure if they got their money back or how much they paid already. China is certainly going to get their system up before the EU. I read that China is about to launch the next generation Beidou 2 very soon. By the reaction of the EU, they don't seem to be the ones with the upper-hand here.