China's Space Program News Thread

[Temstar]

There should be another KZ-1A waiting at JSLC, here's a photo of them leaving together. Let's see if the other launch will happen shortly or get delayed.

If ExPace is under too much pressure building loads of KZ-1A then perhaps this is one area where commercial space could actually help out. Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 has identical performance and also uses the 3 solid stage + liquid upper stage layout and is currently 2 for 2.

 

[tiancai8888]

View attachment 79954
There should be another KZ-1A waiting at JSLC, here's a photo of them leaving together. Let's see if the other launch will happen shortly or get delayed.

The NOTAM is still active for the second Kuaizhou-1A launch, but IMO they will not launch it. Unless they can find & fix the problem in 2 days, That's nearly impossible.

 

[Temstar]

If KZ-1A is grounded until the issue is fixed wouldn't this create an unique opportunity for commercial space with similar rockets? Other than Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 I think there are also:

• i-Space's Hyperbola-1, although they also had launch failure this year and might be sorting things out
• Landspace's Zhuque-1, although they may not be building any more as they seem focused on their Zhuque-2 currently
• China Rocket (CALT) Jielong-1

That are similar sized.

 

[by78]

The Sun shines on the flexible solar arrays of the Chinese space station.

 

[Dante80]

If KZ-1A is grounded until the issue is fixed wouldn't this create an unique opportunity for commercial space with similar rockets? Other than Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 I think there are also:

• i-Space's Hyperbola-1, although they also had launch failure this year and might be sorting things out
• Landspace's Zhuque-1, although they may not be building any more as they seem focused on their Zhuque-2 currently
• China Rocket (CALT) Jielong-1

That are similar sized.

Redundancy (of any kind) is always a bonus when assured access to space is concerned.
Rapid redundancy isn't always though. While most generic payload packages are mostly compatible with different spacecraft and space vehicles, you need to perform a new integration study if you want to switch. By the time you are done and are ready to mate, the original vehicle is back online. Trust me, KZ-1A will be back online very soon.

That is not to say having more vehicles in a class is not directly useful to a space program. Far from it.

 

[Overbom]

By the time you are done and are ready to mate, the original vehicle is back online. Trust me, KZ-1A will be back online very soon.

What is the average time for investigating a launch failure, fixing the issue and launching again

6 months?

 

[taxiya]

What is the average time for investigating a launch failure, fixing the issue and launching again

6 months?

Far shorter than any other solid rockets. KZ-1 was successfully launched in 2013, now it is 14 successes and 3 failures. I guess the others have not get the chance to face the challenge that KZ-1 is facing yet.

 

[Andy1974]

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Far shorter than any other solid rockets. KZ-1 was successfully launched in 2013, now it is 14 successes and 3 failures. I guess the others have not get the chance to face the challenge that KZ-1 is facing yet.

their talent is getting a great education.

 

[Temstar]

What is the average time for investigating a launch failure, fixing the issue and launching again

6 months?

Depends on the problem, here's a data point:

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Hyperbola-1 Y5 failed on 3rd of August this year, issue identified and fixed on 13th of November, around 100 days.

 

[Temstar]

I've watched this channel a few times and thought it's pretty neat but this time they knocked it out of the park. Main topic for this episode was talking about the Ceres-1 successful launch recently and these two were just like "oh yeah, here's a systems engineer from Galactic Energy we invited to talk about the company".

According to him there are five Ceres-1 launches planned for 2022.