China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
by78
General
Official announcement/confirmation on the timeline for upcoming deep space exploration missions:
– Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission will launch in 2025.
– Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission will launch in 2028.
– Tianwen-4 Jupiter probe will launch around 2030.
Separately, China has confirmed that Chang'e-7 and -8 missions will be launched in 2026 and 2028, respectively.
Tianwen-4 Jupiter probe is planned to be launched in September of 2029. It will also conduct a flyby survey of Venus around April of 2030. It will finally enter Jupiter's orbit in December 2035 and fly around Jupiter 10 times. After that, Tianwen-4 will enter Callisto's orbit in 2038 and release an impact probe to study Callisto's surface.
by78
General
Hainan Commercial Spaceport has begun launch rehearsals for the upcoming fifth flight of Long March 8, which will be the maiden launch carried out by the newly constructed spaceport.
Long March 8 in the assembly hall.
by78
General
A milestone for Tianbing/Space Pioneer.
Tianbing Techology's today. Built from scratch for producing large liquid launch vehicles, Zhangjiagang manufacturing base has the largest rocket assembly plant (by area and production capacity) in Asia. The completion and commissioning of the base will help Tianbing achieve a production capacity of more than 30 Tianlong-3 launch vehicles per year. The base will also help Tianbing accelerate technological innovation and product iteration.
Tianbing has selected Guiyang as the location for a new production base for its Tianlong-3 launch vehicle. Recently, the CEO of Tianbing inspected the location.
escobar
Brigadier
This could be our first unofficial look at China's spaceplane from Maxar on-orbit image.
The wing shape seems different from X-37B one
The nose of the plane is similar with the only photo that came out in the heat tiles presentation..
That seems to match what we've observed of the Chinese spaceplane
The wing shape seems different from X-37B one
The nose of the plane is similar with the only photo that came out in the heat tiles presentation..
That seems to match what we've observed of the Chinese spaceplane
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escobar
Brigadier
I’ve been paying close attention to 18 Yaogan-43 satellites China has launched in the past 3 months. While the investigation continues, I thought a brief summary would be helpful. China has conducted 3 launches containing Yaogan-43 (YG-43) satellites. All were from China’s Xichang launch facility. The first launch occurred on 3 Aug 2024 and placed 9 YG-43 01 satellites into a 500km/35° orbit using a Long March 4B rocket. Exactly one month later, on 3 Sep 2024, China launched another LM-4B, however this time there were only 6 satellites on board (known as YG-43 02). This second batch of satellites also went to a 500km/35° orbit, however this launch went to a different RAAN so these 6 YG-43 02 satellites are NOT co-planar with any of the 9 YG-43 01 satellites. Then on 22 Oct 2024 China launched a Long March-2C (LM-2C) with the third set of Yaogan-43 satellites (YG-43 03). This launch carried only 3 satellites to a 500km/35° orbit. The 3 YG-43 03 satellites ARE CO-PLANAR with the 6 YG-43 02 satellites. In fact, China deliberately launched the 3 YG-43 03 satellites into the middle of the 6 YG-43 02 satellite “formation”. Below are some graphics (all data current as of 6 Nov 2024) to show you what China is up to. Being inclined 35° the satellites pass as far north as Southern Japan and as far south as Southern Australia
The 3 YG-43 03 satellites only recently began to maneuver and their spacing and relationship with the 6 YG-43 02 (60945-60950) satellites will likely change over time.
- While both the YG-43 01 and combined YG-43 02/03 satellite “formations” both have 9 satellites, they are not deployed identically. For instance, the time from the Lead to the final Trail satellite to pass over the same point for YG-43 01 is ~32 minutes. By comparison, the time from Lead to Final Trail in the YG-43 02/03 “formation” is only ~19 minutes.
-There are no other Yaogan satellites co-planar with the 9 YG-43 01 satellites. The 9 YG-43 02/03 satellites ARE co-planar with YG-35 03, YG-36 04 and YG-39 02 satellites.
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by78
General
LandSpace has completed mechanical tests of the grid fins for its Zhuque-3 launch vehicle.
