China's Space Program Thread II

[Aligazali]

Chinese space exploration was shown at the philately expo in Bucharest this year. There were many pannels like this starting from the firsts rockets until present day.

 

[by78]

A few more images of Tianbing's Tianlong-3 launch vehicle.

 

[gpt]

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ESA provided two scientific instruments and ground station support for Chang'e-6's return to Earth around June 25 but its future cooperation with China's lunar program probably ends here.

 

[tphuang]

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Galaxy space has tested its LEO wide band satcom tech in Thailand. With EASA being forced to not work with China, global south countries get to benefit

 

[taxiya]

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ESA provided two scientific instruments and ground station support for Chang'e-6's return to Earth around June 25 but its future cooperation with China's lunar program probably ends here.

That raises a question as why Chang'e-6 took so much longer than Chang'5 mission. What was said in public is because of the retro-orbit of Chang'e-6. But there is another possibe explaination is that Chang'e-6 mission is an attempt of doing things without ESA graound station support, an verification test while ESA station is still available. I got this feeling when reading this article

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In short, it says that China's deep space TT&C system is made of two networks 35m (antenna diameter) net and 18m net. The first has a coverage from 93-98% while the second from 68-90%. These coverage varies over hours in a day and days in a month. With ESA stations those gaps are covered, but without ESA there would be hours of blindness. Since the lengh of blindness change over a month, the better days for tracking are also spread out over a month. That leads to the mission being lenghened to make sure the longest coverage period for various communication and control activities, during the rest of time we are just waiting for the alignment of moon, earth and spacecraft.

I think China planned this (without ESA) long ago before the relationship went sour. China always plan for the worst even in the best time.

 

[davidau]

Don't rely on others, do it on your own!

 

[by78]

A big milestone for the Long March 10 moon rocket. CASC has completed the

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of Long March 10's first stage. The test was a complete success and verified the performance of 1st stage boosters and engines as well as the fuel delivery system.

 

[by78]

(Continued from above...)

Some images and a video from the first hot test run of the first stage of Long March 10.

 

[by78]

(Continued from above...)

 

[by78]

Some images of the Pallas-1 rocket being assembled.

The maiden flight of Galactic Energy's Pallas-1 rocket will take place at the end of 2024, according to Mr. Xing Boqiang (邢柏强), director of propulsion systems manufacturing. The company is currently making final optimizations to the propulsion system and will soon carry out fairing separation and vibration tests in preparation for the maiden launch.