Quickie
Colonel
Is the data on the satellites' masses really that accurate?
I think the U.S. total mass also includes commercial launches of satellites belonging to other countries.
China's Space Program News Thread
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Is the data on the satellites' masses really that accurate?
I think the U.S. total mass also includes commercial launches of satellites belonging to other countries.
That's a good point, lots of those US launches are for other countries equipment, so if you want to look at capacity don't remove them from the total but if you want to look at real national capability as assessed by tonnage then they should be removed from the total.
Wouldn't be surprised if the US and China were launching similar tonnage when accounting for that, but it still implies a large capacity for the US anyway so it's still a lead.
I'm not sure how accurate this data is. US launch is 9 ton on average, which is quite high. while China launch is 3.6 ton on average, quite low.
Of course it also depends on the orbit. Mixing launches of different orbits obviously favours low Earth orbit.
It is interesting when the Chinese count the world launches. They tend to include the NewZealand launches into US's. Rocket Lab launch in NewZealand while HQ in US. Then the number will be China 47 launches & US 44.
Quickie
Colonel
Depending on the type of rockets, LEO can be 3 times that of GTO
China's average is about in the normal range. 9 ton is way more on the high side.
I've just found out this bit of info.
"SpaceX launches up to 60 satellites at a time, aiming to deploy 1,584 of the 260 kg (570 lb) spacecraft to provide near-global service by late 2021 or 2022."
That comes out to: 260kg x 60 = 15,600kg per launch
Assuming 15 Starlink launches so far this year (too lazy to double-check), the payload mass from these launches alone would account for 234 ton! 66% of the total mass.
by78
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An illustration of the communication relay test conducted jointly by the European Space Agency and CNSA in November, 2021.
The Zhurong rover beamed test data to the orbiter, which then forwarded the data to an ESA deep space monitoring station on Earth, which relayed it to the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), which in turn forwarded it to the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. The relay test was a complete success.
The Zhurong rover beamed test data to the orbiter, which then forwarded the data to an ESA deep space monitoring station on Earth, which relayed it to the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), which in turn forwarded it to the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center. The relay test was a complete success.
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