China's Space Program Thread II

[tacoburger]

Can we talk about China's private rocket companies? How fast do you think they will scale up? How soon can they achieve resuability? How soon can they get a heavy lift or super heavy rocket? Will any of them try to develop a Starship class fully resuable rocket or will they stick with Falcon 9/heavy clones for the foreseeable future? How many of them will try to human rate their rockets? Will they be allowed to launch people into the Tiangong space station? Will they attempt to develop other space hardware like spacesuits, space stations or crewed vessels?

Is there any company doing something truly innovative that no one else is working on? Also which of almost dozen companies will survive? How much of a market space is there in the chinese launch market? How much of the global launch market can they get, will European customers ever want to use a private chinese company for launch? Will they to launch national missions like with future lunar missions, military satellites, high profile planetary science missions or will those be solely reserved for Long March rockets?

 

[huemens]

Can we talk about China's private rocket companies? How fast do you think they will scale up? How soon can they achieve resuability? How soon can they get a heavy lift or super heavy rocket? Will any of them try to develop a Starship class fully resuable rocket or will they stick with Falcon 9/heavy clones for the foreseeable future? How many of them will try to human rate their rockets? Will they be allowed to launch people into the Tiangong space station? Will they attempt to develop other space hardware like spacesuits, space stations or crewed vessels?

Is there any company doing something truly innovative that no one else is working on? Also which of almost dozen companies will survive? How much of a market space is there in the chinese launch market? How much of the global launch market can they get, will European customers ever want to use a private chinese company for launch? Will they to launch national missions like with future lunar missions, military satellites, high profile planetary science missions or will those be solely reserved for Long March rockets?

In my opinion they are progressing well. They started much recently compared to the western companies, which is why some get the impression they are not progressing. Some have launched solid fueled rockets. Two have had successful launches of liquid rockets. Tianlong-2 was the first fully liquid rocket in the world to succeed in first try. They also used fuel derived from coal. Zhuque-2 was the first methane rocket to reach space and to reach orbit.

For some comparison US company Relativity started at the same time as Landspace and they were also working on a methane rocket (Terran-1) and their fist test was attempted later than Landspace and they gave up on Terran-1 after first failure. SpaceX is undoubtedly the most successful private launch company, but they also took many years for Falcon-9. Blue Origin is as old as SpaceX but they are yet to launch an orbital class rocket. ULA, another US private company with a lot of experience has been working on their new rocket Vulcan Centaur for 9 years and they are yet to try the first test launch. No other company including other western companies has so for had success similar to SpaceX, so I think the current progress of Chinese companies are quite good.

As for re-usability, at least one is scheduled to try a reusable launch next year, I don't remember which one. There have been design proposals for all kinds of rockets from private companies, including super heavy vehicles. There are also things like space planes.

 

[anzha]

some scientific papers:

Attitude control for a full-scale flexible electric solar wind sail spacecraft on heliocentric and displaced non-Keplerian orbits​

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Experimental study on tesla valve and bypass manifold to suppress feedback of rotating detonation engine fuel by kerosene

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and data from Chang'E probes suggests there might just be a volcano, erm, thermal hotspot on the farside of the moon:

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The first comprehensive Milky Way stellar mock catalogue for the Chinese Space Station Telescope Survey Camera

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[Asug]

There are more than a dozen private companies involved in the development of missiles. It makes sense to consider those firms that have already completed real launches, or will soon do them. By mid-2023, these are seven companies:
"ExPace Technology" with the rocket "Kuaizhou";
"China Rocket" ("Jielong-3");
"iSpace" ("Hyperbola-1");
"Galactic Energy" (Ceres-1);
"CAS Space" ("Lijian-1");
"Space Pioneer" ("Tianlong-2");
"Landspace" ("Zhuque-2").
Close to its first launch "Orienspace" with its carrier "Gravity-1".

"ExPace Technology" and "China Rocket" are mixed companies established by CASIC and CASC. "Kuaizhou-1A" has already had 19 successful launches and has good prospects because it will launch satellites from Xingyun, another CASIC subsidiary, Xingyun Satellite Co. Promising missile "Kuaizhou-11".
"CAS Space" is partially owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is intended to carry out CAS research projects. The company expects that its rockets will be considered as a reserve for launching cargo to the Chinese orbital station. The most powerful missile planned is the Lijian-3/PR-3.
"Landspace" and "Space Pioneer" have liquid rockets ready. Both companies are working on more powerful and reusable versions. Perhaps one of them will become the "Chinese SpaceX". It should be noted that sites for launching private rockets are being built on Wenchang. It was reported that these could be Hyperbola-2, Tianlong-2, Pallas, Jielong-3, Zhuque-2. That is, these companies already have an advantage.
In my opinion, the time of "mergers and acquisitions" is coming in the private sector. The one who can get stable orders for launches will survive. Including from the state.

 

[pipaster]

Launch of the CERS-1 (Y6) was successful today.

 

[by78]

High-resolution images of the 6th launch of Galactic Energy's Ceres-1 rocket, which successfully sent the Qiankun-1 (乾坤一号) VLEO experimental remote-sensing satellite and the StarTimes-16 (星时代-16) remote-sensing satellite into orbit. This marks the 6th flight of Ceres-1, and all launches have been successful.

P.S. Five more launches of Ceres-1 are scheduled for the next two months, with the next one being a sea launch from the Haiyang Spaceport.

 

[by78]

China has

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the

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for submitting proposals for scientific experiments to be carried out on the Chinese space station. Gui Haichao (桂海潮), the payload specialist currently working onboard the Chinese space station, has extended an invitation to the Chinese scientific community to submit proposals.

Previously, the China Manned Space Agency had

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on proposal submission.

 

[Asug]

Why do they write about the grid fins on the 1st stage? Where is the stage separation line of the CZ-2D?

 

[huemens]

Why do they write about the grid fins on the 1st stage? Where is the stage separation line of the CZ-2D?View attachment 116224View attachment 116225

Because grid fins are on the first stage. Stage separation is slightly above the grid fins

 

[iantsai]

China launched Sixiang01~03, Lingxi03, total four satelites by a CZ-2D rocket from Taiyuan Satelite Center in 10:50 UTC+8 July 23, 2023. All four satelites are remote sensing and telecommunications oriented.

This was the 479th Changzheng series rocket launch.