China's Space Program Thread II

[by78]

Some images of the drop tower belonging to the National Microgravity Laboratory. The tower is used to simulate low-gravity/micro-gravity environment. Located in Beijing, it was built in 2003. With a height of 116 meters above ground and 8 meters below ground, it's the highest drop tower in Asia. The tower is capable of simulating microgravity (as low as 0.00001g) for 3.6 seconds. It was also used to verify the performance of Tianwen-2's robotic arm in microgravity environment, which is crucial to its ability to obtain astroid samples.

 

[sunnymaxi]

Summary of Chinese rockets which plan to have maiden flight in 2025-

CALT: CZ-8A
SAST:CZ-12A
Land Space: ZQ-3
Space Pionner: TL-3
Orien Space: Gravity-2
iSpace: Hyper Bola-3
Sepoch: YXZ-1
CasSpace: LJ-2
Galctic Energy: Pallas-1 & Ceres-2
DeepBlue Aerospace: Nebula-1

 

[by78]

China National Space Administration has a new chief.

Mr. Shan Zhongde (单忠德) is the eight head of the agency. He previously served as the vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, director of the National Atomic Energy Agency, director of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and president of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, among other roles.

 

[by78]

The Haiyang Oriental Spaceport (海阳东方航天港) has more than a dozen launches planned for 2024, with three having already been completed.

Teng Yao, director of Shandong Maritime Space Equipment Technology Innovation Center, said in a recent interview that the Haiyang Oriental Spaceport is expected to complete more than 10 launch missions in 2025. The spaceport is aiming to have the capacity for 100 launches per year by 2030.

 

[by78]

Mr. Shou Junming, director of Launch Services,

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that Hainan Commercial Spaceport has an annual capacity for 32 launches. Further expansions are in the works, with a focus on heavy launch vehicles, at-sea recovery of reusable launch vehicles, and space tourism, among other areas.

A bidding document from Hainan Commercial Spaceport. It announces the winning bids for an at-sea recovery ship for reusable launch vehicles. The winners are 708 Institute of CSSC, 701 Institute of CSIC, and Wuhan Tingtao Marine Engineering Corp.

 

[by78]

The development of Lijian-2 continues apace. Zhongke/CAS Space has completed static load tests on Lijian-2's 1st-stage fuel tank.

Zhongke/CAS Space has completed static load testing on Lijian-2's 1st-stage liquid oxygen tank.

 

[by78]

Some presentation slides from 2022 on the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission. I must have forgotten to post these.

To summarize, the mission will require two Long March 5 launches, one carrying the orbiter+returner and the other carrying the lander+ascender. After soil samples are obtained, they will be transferred to the ascender, which takes off from Martian surface and rendezvous with the orbiter+returner in orbit. The samples are subsequently transferred from the ascender to the returner, which then detaches from the orbiter and carries the samples back to Earth. The mission will last some approximately two and a half years.

A handy infographic on the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission scheduled to be launched in 2028.

 

[by78]

A Lijian-1 has successfully launched 15 satellites –– Experiment 26A, B, and C; Jilin-1 High Resolution 05B; Platform 02A03; Yunyao-1 31 through 36; Xiguang-1 04 and 05; Oman's Intelligent Remote Sensing Satellite 1; and the Tianyan 24.

Oman Intelligent Remote Sensing Satellite (IRSS-1) has been officially handed over to Oman for operations. IRSS-1 is an optical remote sensing satellite developed for Oman by Shenzhen Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite Ltd., a subsidiary of China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) which itself is a subsidiary of CASC.

 

[by78]

A high-resolution image of the Guangzhou Tower taken by Jilin-1 Gaofen-5B.

 

[by78]

Cosmoleap's chopstick recovery test tower has completed static load testing.

CosmoLeap has recently conducted hot test runs of the 100-Newton and 300-Newton engines intended for the auxiliary propulsion system of the Leap-1 launch vehicle.