China's Space Program Thread II

[gpt]

Dec 15 2024 NOTAM indicating a polar orbit inclination just came out for CZ-5B

possible payloads are:
千帆极轨04 01~36 (Spacesail 04 01-36)
or
中国国网 (G60? Guowang polar slots) 01~15

 

[Temstar]

View attachment 140072

Dec 15 2024 NOTAM indicating a polar orbit inclination just came out for CZ-5B

possible payloads are:
千帆极轨04 01~36 (Spacesail 04 01-36)
or
中国国网 (G60? Guowang polar slots) 01~15

LM5B for satellite internet launch? Isn't that rather expensive per kg?

 

[taxiya]

The use case have always been fairy niche, as 99% of people will rarely venture outside of 5G tower broadcast range.

Even now providers probably charge an arm and a leg for any data consumed through the satellite network.

We'll unlikely to see prices come down for consumers a large part of the constellation is up and running. It is a pretty big gamble for Huawei to invest substantially in this technology, at least it also have large military utility in that it'll cabbagize ground to satellite comms to the point that it can be given to every soldier at low price.

The barrier to that will be domestic carriers wanting a piece of the pie, like how starlink is banned in China. But I do see how it could be very popular in developing countries which can't afford the infrastructure in the first place, the prices for satellite communication capable phone just need to come down to an affordable rate.

I am not sure of your concern. Starlink is essentially doing the same thing abeit outside the 6G framwork. It isn't as expensive as "a leg and an arm". It is just too big to be mobile. It's price is acceptable for residents where fibre or copper ethernet is too expensive. Huawei's doing is merely making that big dish and box into a handheld phone. Yes that kind of phone is more expensive but it is only at most double the price of top of the line mobile phone, Mate 6X LEO variant is 16K RMB. This NTN 6G is never meant for people in the city, it is meant for coverage in remote locations. Is it really expensive? I don't think so. A guy in the city will pay tripple or four times for housing and many everyday cost. A guy in the remote saves all these cost and pay higher price for being connected. Overall not much difference. This has't include the users in a plane or on a cruiser ship or sailors on cargo ships or tourists who increasingly go into wilderness.

Starlink got banned is only for security reasons, nothing to do with business feasibility. China will encourage and promote this use case once China had her own network, not only inside China but also outside and interconnected. The reason for Starlink being banned (the security reason) is that it does not collabrate with suppressing and filterring rubbish informations, same reason for all western social media got banned.

 

[gpt]

LM5B for satellite internet launch? Isn't that rather expensive per kg?

Payloads haven't been confirmed and ppl are just speculating based on trajectory/inclination and rumor. I was under the impression this configuration is only used for very large payloads like Tianhe or a space telescope so it could also be that.
The US estimates CZ-5 launch at $3000/kg which is still under Vulcan's price for their launch of Amazon's Kuiper.

 

[taxiya]

Payloads haven't been confirmed and ppl are just speculating based on trajectory/inclination and rumor. I was under the impression this configuration is only used for very large payloads like Tianhe or a space telescope so it could also be that.
The US estimates CZ-5 launch at $3000/kg which is still under Vulcan's price for their launch of Amazon's Kuiper.

But the telescope is going to the same orbit as the space station which is 40 degrees something. Launching from Hainan the dropping zone is far off. Do you have the NOTAM message? Why do people think that is related to CZ-5B? It could be the maiden flight of CZ-12 which is designed for SSO.

 

[gpt]

A3800/24 NOTAMN
Q) VVHM/QAFXX/IV/NBO/E/000/999/0901N11056E030
A) VVHM B) 2412150930 C) 2412191630
D) DAILY 0930-1630
E) DUE TO AEROSPACE FLIGHT ACTIVITY FM CHINA, THE FLIGHT SAFETY
OF THE ACFT IN THE FLW AREA MAY BE AFFECTED:
083541N1104200E-092700N1104200E-092700N1110900E-085127N1110859E
POINTS CONNECTION RANGE
VERTICAL ALTITUDE: SFC-UNL
DRG THIS ACTIVITY, ATS RTE SEGMENT L625 (AKMON - UDOSI - ALDAS)
IS NOT USED
RMKS:
- ALL ACFT SHALL AVOID THE AFFECTED AREA OR SUBJ TO ATC CLEARANCES
- THE AEROSPACE FLIGHT ACTIVITY CONDUCTED BY CHINA DIRECTLY
AFFECTS FLIGHT OPERATIONS WI HO CHI MINH FIR. THE CHINA PARTY IS
REQUIRED TO CONTINUE TO COORDINATE WITH THE COMPETENT
AUTHORITIES OF VIETNAM IN LINE WITH THE PROCEDURES SET OUT IN
ANNEX 11 AND AGREED PROCEDURES OF THE REGION
- THIS NOTAM IS ISSUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ICAO REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE SAFETY OF ACFT OPERATIONS WI HO CHI MINH FIR.
F) SFC G) UNL

A3799/24 NOTAMN
Q) VVHM/QAFXX/IV/NBO/E/000/999/1022N11056E034
A) VVHM B) 2412150930 C) 2412191630
D) DAILY 0930-1630
E) DUE TO AEROSPACE FLIGHT ACTIVITY FM CHINA, THE FLIGHT SAFETY
OF THE ACFT IN THE FLW AREA MAY BE AFFECTED:
095200N1104200E-095200N1110900E-105200N1110900E-105200N1104200E
POINTS CONNECTION RANGE
VERTICAL ALTITUDE: SFC-UNL
DRG THIS ACTIVITY, ATS RTE SEGMENTS MENTIONED BELOW ARE NOT USED:
- N892: OSIXA - MAPNO - MIMUX
- M765: SAMAP - MAPNO - ALDAS
- N500: DAMVO - MIMUX - AGSAM
- L625: AKMON - UDOSI - ALDAS

Distance matches the Mengtian/Wentian launches.

Plus they mention here there's a couple more launches left from Wenchang this year: Tianzhou-8 (CZ-7), CZ-5B, CZ-8, and CZ-12.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

It could be the maiden flight of CZ-12 which is designed for SSO.

Marine navigation warning was already given out for CZ-12, which is launching in a few days.
Drop zone is near Phillipines