China's Space Program Thread II

[taxiya]

Never say never again... China did it in the 1990's,China is not doing it in the 2020's, who knows what will happen in the 2040's.

If I remember correctly, it was when China launched 4 satellites made by Hughes for Australia and 3 by Lokeed Martin for HK from 1990 to 1995. During the launches Hughes had people on the assembly site to make sure Chinese have no access to the satellites except mounting them on the fairing. The 1990s were the "best" time between China and US.

So yes, in principle one shall never say never. But in reality, when do you think this kind of "good" relationship will EVER come back again? Most importantly, it was NEVER up to what China does or want, it is totally up to US. So from China's perspective, it is never.

 

[taxiya]

As an interesting, somewhat related example, China launched Turkey's (a NATO ally) Gokturk 2 Earth observation satellite back in 2012. I'd always thought both sides would refrain from something like that because of data leak sensitivity or whatnot but somehow it happened.

There was no problem back then. For example, China used 32000 Intel Xeon and 48000 Intel Phi chips for Tianhe-2 supercomputer. But Obama banned Phi export in 2014 when China was upgrading Tianhe-2. Today is a totally different era that probably will last until the end of US China confrontation.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Another week, another VTVL test. This time, ExPace (a subsidiary of CASIC) successfully conducted a hop test of a test rocket powered by the company's reusable LOX/Methane engine (likely Mingfeng-1). Total flight time was 22 seconds, with 9 seconds of hovering time.

Cabbaggizing recoverable rockets like AESA radar…

 

[by78]

iSpace/Interstellar Glory/Space Honor has officially

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a production line for propellant tanks. The line is part of a larger launch vehicle production base that began construction in 2021. The base is located in the Daxing district of Beijing and will eventually occupy some 60 acres.

 

[siegecrossbow]

A satellite laser communication ground station. I'm not sure if this is the same type of ground station used in the recent satellite-to-ground laser communication test that reached a transmission speed of 10Gpbs.

With a fair bit of modification you can, umm, use the rig for something else .

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

Some drama going on at Landspace. Something went sideways:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1751983940964139434

 

[tacoburger]

Some drama going on at Landspace. Something went sideways:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1751983940964139434

Looks like a fairly minor accident, like some kind of pressure vessel rupturing. If it was a some kind of fuel explosion, there would be countless more videos of the fireball and resulting fire/smoke and wayyy more injured.

 

[vincent]

Some drama going on at Landspace. Something went sideways:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1751983940964139434

3 were hurt supposedly

 

[by78]

China's first nested-channel Hall thrusters has achieved stable operation. The thruster was developed by the Shanghai Space Propulsion Institute and has a power level of 50 kW.

 

[gpt]

Pretty good interview that covers the Chinese space program with Ellieinspace and Dongfanghour