China's Space Program Thread II

[by78]

Components of Tianbing's second Tianlong-2 rocket has been transported the company's new intelligent production base in Zhangjiagang (张家港) for final assembly and testing. The rocket is scheduled to be launched early next year.

P.S. The Zhangjiagang production base is still under construction, with phase I about to be complete by end of this year.

 

[luosifen]

Shenzhou-16 crew safely back on Earth:

 

[gadgetcool5]

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With Shenzhou 16's return, the first Chinese civilian has completed a space mission.

 

[escobar]

Some images from the first launch of 2023. A CZ-7A successfully inserted the Shijian-23 (实践二十三号) satellite into orbit. This marks the 459th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets. The Shijian-23 satellite was developed by the 8th Academy of CASC, and it's used to carry out certain scientific experiments and technical verification.

Shijian-23 Proximity Operations

 

[escobar]

At 3:00 pm on January 13, 2023, Beijing time, a Long March 2D rocket successfully sent the Remote Sensing No. 37 (遥感三十七号) and the Shiyan-22 A and B (试验二十二号A/B星) satellites into orbit. The three satellites launched this time are mainly used for on-orbit verification of new technologies such as space environment monitoring. This mission marks the 461st launch of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

YG-37 maneuvered to avoid a potential collision with an australian sat

 

[escobar]

TJS-3 RPO activities : Its maneuvers seem to have placed it in the vicinity of several US military communications satellites.

 

[escobar]

Long March 3B Y90 launches Gaofen-13-02 GEO Earth observation satellite from Xichang at ~08:33UTC on March 17

GF-13-02 settled into its GEO slot, expanding China's coverage of the Western Pacific. China placed GF-13-02 significantly further east than GF- 13-01 which will enable surveillance further from China's coastline. GF-13-02 is <2° East of Guam and <1° East of the Northern Marianas Islands.

 

[escobar]

On March 31st, a Long March 4C successfully inserted the Yaogan-34 04 remote sensing satellite into orbit. This marks the 470th flight of the Long March series.

YG-34 series satellites orbit closely matches that of three sets of Yaogan-31 satellite triplets. All four YG-31 triplets are accompanied by a YG-34 satellite. Yaogan-31 satellites are analogous to US DoD Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) satellite triplets. NOSS satellites locate and track ships at sea by detecting radio transmissions and analyzing them using time-difference- of-arrival (TDOA). Pairing YG-34 series optical remote sensing satellite with the Yaogan 31 triplets could yield the ability to "tip and cue" between sensors and use imagery to confirm ship or other target locations and identities.

 

[escobar]

Another day, another launch. A Long March 6 successfully launched the Shiyan-25 (试验二十五) into orbit. The remote sensing satellite will be used for land surveying, disaster mitigation, and urban planning. This was the 477th launch of the Long March series and the 11th launch of Long March 6 rocket.

Shiyan 25 Lowers Orbit and now Operating in VLEO

 

[escobar]

Another day, another launch. A Long March 6 has successfully launched the Remote Sensing 40 satellite (感四十号) into orbit, which will be used to study earth's magnetic environment. The launch marks the 487th flight of the Long March series.

Three spacecraft of the first group “Yaogan-40” were launched into a subpolar orbit with an inclination of 86°, which until now has hardly been used in China. In the late 1990s, American Iridium satellites were launched by Chinese carriers into orbits with an inclination of 86.4°, and recently, in 2021–2023, inclinations of 86.0° and 86.4° were used by China to launch experimental low-orbit communications satellites. It is worth clarifying that the orbit chosen for the YG-40 provides an almost global view. The main subject of interest now is the upcoming construction of this new constellation. Are they planned to work in a close group, like the Chinese NOSS family of systems, or will they be distributed along the orbit like the Yaogang-30?