China's Space Program News Thread

[Quickie]

No, LM-5B core stage is separated from payload under spring power not retro-rocket. They talked about this during the live broadcast of the launch.

Either the people on the broadcast are wrong (which seems unlikely), or else if there are retro-rockets then it must be for deorbiting burn.

In regard to the retro-rocket, I was not referring to LM-5B but the Atlas V launcher in the video posted.

 

[Quickie]

There is no second stage on the LM-5B (unless you count the boosters). The problem is that the core stage reached orbit and is now tumbling in space with apparently no means to deorbit in a controlled manner. The core stage of Atlas V does not reach orbit by design.



NASA standard practice of disposing upper stages.

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Accepted disposal strategies for upper stages include:
1. reentry within 25 years. Risk of human casualty must be less than 1:10000. Because of their small size (just 10% of LM-5B core), the danger the Centaur uppers stages present is far smaller.

2.
- storage orbit between 2000km and 19700km
- storage orbit between 20700km and 35300km
- storage orbit above 36100km

3. Direct retrieval: retrieve the structure and remove it from orbit as soon as practical after completion of mission.

Functionally in the way of rocket stages separation:

1. The LM-5B boosters are the first stage, its core stage the second stage.
2. The core stage of Atlas V is the first rocket stage since it's the first stage to be separated during launch. Its second stage is what sends the spacecraft to orbit.

Imo, any kind of rocket debris is capable of doing damage, no matter how large it started off during reentry as it's going to be broken up into smaller pieces in the heat of reentry before coming back to Earth.

The Falcon rocket pressurized tank is just as capable of doing the same damage as any broken-up similar-sized debris from the LM-5B second stage when they crash land to Earth.

 

[Quickie]

More propaganda from the Anglo media:

When China does Space Exploration, it's never about the advancement of science and humankind, it's about wanting to become a space power and doing what the Russian and American had done in the 1960s.

Again, even the detail given by the "expert" is wrong. Mir Space Station and Skylab were send up in the 1980s and 1970s respectively, NOT in the 1960s.

 

[Gloire_bb]

Is there an international space law that regulates the reentry of man-made space objects?

It's a genuine question.

Yes. Liability convention(definition of damage&art. 2 - principle of absolute liability), rescue treaty(art.5 - return of parts&objects, search&rescue, and mitigation efforts), and, ofc, the Outer Space Treaty itself - preamble and art.IX(principle of due regard).
Sorry for a short reply - I am writing it "on the run". I can expand it later if necessary....

 

[AssassinsMace]

I was watching a report on CNN and the tabloid reporter I've seen before said the Chinese booster weighed 22,000 tons.

 

[windsclouds2030]

I was watching a report on CNN and the tabloid reporter I've seen before said the Chinese booster weighed 22,000 tons.

I guess that you meant 22 ton or 22,000 kilograms

22,000 tons are way too much for this millennium, another millennium perhaps.

 

[longmarch]

Yes. Liability convention(definition of damage&art. 2 - principle of absolute liability), rescue treaty(art.5 - return of parts&objects, search&rescue, and mitigation efforts), and, ofc, the Outer Space Treaty itself - preamble and art.IX(principle of due regard).
Sorry for a short reply - I am writing it "on the run". I can expand it later if necessary....

You are muddying the water. The accusation is that uncontrolled reentry, even if it doesn't hit anyone, break so called International space law.
Let's see how you prove that, and when China sign up to it.

 

[siegecrossbow]

I was watching a report on CNN and the tabloid reporter I've seen before said the Chinese booster weighed 22,000 tons.

If China had the ability to launch a warship into space we'd see Chinese flags all over the solar system by now.

 

[Engineer]

The problem is that the core stage reached orbit and is now tumbling in space with apparently no means to deorbit in a controlled manner. The core stage of Atlas V does not reach orbit by design.

You misspelled achievement. Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) is kind of a holy grail of rocket design. The achievement here is that the LM5 core stage reached orbit and making LM5 the closest thing to SSTO launcher since the Space Shuttle. It is something to be celebrated.

NASA standard practice of disposing upper stages.

That isn't applicable here since LM5 has no upper stage. You said so yourself:

There is no second stage on the LM-5B (unless you count the boosters).

 

[Temstar]

I was watching a report on CNN and the tabloid reporter I've seen before said the Chinese booster weighed 22,000 tons.

Behold: PLASF Donnager