"Not because it's easy, but because it will make half of reddit butthurt".
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
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"Not because it's easy, but because it will make half of reddit butthurt".
I see them as doing this for the benefit of the Chinese-illiterate, which is the point of including English on their uniforms at all in the first place. The CNSA is also an internationally-facing organisation as much as a national one e.g. UNOOSA.
If you want to be ethno-centric about it, one way to read this is that they're being courteous to the English-centric Western norms when it comes to naming conventions, but at the same time somewhat cheeky in that it also shows they have no expectation from any non-Chinese in their knowledge, or lack thereof, of Chinese naming conventions at all.
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This is a big deal. China is constructing a factory capable of producing 50 LM8 rockets per year in Hainan, slated to be completed some time in 2024. Will be used to launch a large constellation of SSO communications and observation satellites similar to starlink but at a higher altitude. Should be able to launch 1000 satellites per year or more.
So far as I know this will be the first time that China applies pulsating production lines to the manufacturing of rockets. LM8 is a small and non-reusable model, with only about 5 metric tons to SSO, but experience gained here could potentially be used on much larger models in the future. Imagine the uplift that could be achieved with using these methods on the LM5B or even LM9 sometime next decade.
One thing I am confused about: This seems like a stopgap to stay in the game for the rest of the 2020's before the reusable LM9 is ready. However, the same author who wrote this article also wrote one on the reusable spaceplane project recently, where interviewed Chinese engineers described it in the same way: as a means to stay competitive with SpaceX while the LM9 is still in development. So I am a little confused as to what exactly each projects' purpose is. Maybe there are multiple competing efforts, or maybe the boost phase of the space plane could also be produced using pulsating production lines once the necessary experience is gained.
Multiple projects. China is applying its massive industrial heft to solving the problem of access to space.
I personally think Long March 10 has the best changes of success at this point. But this Long March 8 launcher might be possible to launch from available legacy pads in the future.
I personally think Long March 10 has the best changes of success at this point. But this Long March 8 launcher might be possible to launch from available legacy pads in the future.
They propose a whole family of reusable rockets