China's Space Program Thread II

[gelgoog]

Starlink is a big deal in military terms. But yes economically it should have little impact vs fiber optics combined with 5G.
Starlink will also will have little resilience in case of a full blow peer vs peer conflict when satellites themselves become targets. Compare this with fiber optics which are often buried underground.

 

[by78]

Construction update on the phase II expansion of Hainan Commercial Spaceport.

 

[by78]

A Long March 6A successfully launched the third batch of Yaogan-40 remote sensing satellites into space earlier today. The satellites will be used to monitor the earth's magnetic field. This was the 593rd flight of the Long March series.

 

[Michael90]

If starlink was that strategic then China's central space agency and SOEs will be developing it. But they left it to private rocket companies. They are focusing on promoting the development of private rocket companies similar to SpaceX. The focus is on developing an industry instead of developing a capability.

Huh?? Who do you think is developing and launching Guowang/satnet? Private rocket companies? Do you really follow china's space program bro? Lol No private space company has launched even a single satellite for China's state owned/led Guowang and Spacesail constallations so far, its all been done by China's state owned agency/companies for now. So i don't know what you are really talking about.

 

[Michael90]

That shows that Starlink is not that strategic. And when you really think about it, there not much point of satellite internet when fiber optic is overwhelmingly superior. Even poorer places in Africa will want fiber optic, not satellite internet.

So you believe that chinese leaders and space officials are stupid to put so much effort/capital and manpower in developing such a huge satellite constellation like starlink eventhough its useless? I guess you are smarter than the Chinese and americans?. Lol

 

[tamsen_ikard]

So you believe that chinese leaders and space officials are stupid to put so much effort/capital and manpower in developing such a huge satellite constellation like starlink eventhough its useless? I guess you are smarter than the Chinese and americans?. Lol

Starlink type sat network is not useless. But its not massive strategic advantage that China is desperate to acquire. Its nice to have and also nice to be able to have a non-western alternative to star link for the global south. its not a game changer.

 

[Michael90]

Starlink type sat network is not useless. But its not massive strategic advantage that China is desperate to acquire. Its nice to have and also nice to be able to have a non-western alternative to star link for the global south. its not a game changer.

Ok, its not a strategic advantage. You won.

 

[TheRathalos]

View attachment 160210
So LandSpace currently has two ZQ-3 in final assembly, they’re making rapid progress.

They previously said they were working on an initial batch of 3 ZQ-3, similar to what they did on the Zhuque-2, if the time of delivery since the test article is anything to go by and if there are not major dysfunctions during the launch (big if) and if the payloads (Guowang? Qianfan? Haolong?) are ready in theory they could probably launch them within a few months of each other; IMO at worst like Zhuque-2 in 2022-2023 (3 launches in 12 months)

I think there are way too many players. Three private launch companies capable of GTO launch would have been more than enough. I hope they don't all start doing superheavy rockets. Gigantic waste of money when there are other priorities in aerospace.

There should be funding on nuclear upper stages for deep space missions and transport aircraft designs still don't address several segments.

The GTO market is de-facto closed since CALT fullfills virtually all the governmental/military demand through CZ-3B, CZ-7A and CZ-5, all three of which are in the process of expansion of launch capabilities (IMO a doubling is ongoing, looking at CALT's statements about production increases and infrastructure construction & upgrades in Xichang and Wenchang), the chinese high orbit program is by far the world's most ambitious right now.

Huh?? Who do you think is developing and launching Guowang/satnet? Private rocket companies? Do you really follow china's space program bro? Lol No private space company has launched even a single satellite for China's state owned/led Guowang and Spacesail constallations so far, its all been done by China's state owned agency/companies for now. So i don't know what you are really talking about.

It's SOE-led, but private companies are being contracted for it, Landspace (launch) and Yinhe (Galaxy Space, satellite manufacturer) have both been contracted for Satnet; Landspace fucked up twice however (ZQ-2E Y3 was delayed by 8+ months, its payload transfered to CZ-2D, and ultimately failed, destroying Satnet sats).

Construction update on the phase II expansion of Hainan Commercial Spaceport.

Despite the experience learnt from the construction of the LCC-1 & 2 of HICSLC, progress almost seems slow compared to the CZ-12 launch sites in Jiuquan
CZ-12-compatible sites construction in Hainan, Jiuquan and Shandong is actually insane, in term of launch site number there hasn't been anything similar anywhere worldwide since the missile and space races of the 50s/60s
April:
September:

 

[FriedRiceNSpice]

They probably use 2-3 billion dollars per year on this.

Just the CNSA budget alone was about $2-3 billion during the early 2000s. The current budget would certainly be at least ten times that: and the CNSA budget does not represent the entirety of total public spending on space (and that's ignoring private sector spending).

 

[FriedRiceNSpice]

I think there are way too many players. Three private launch companies capable of GTO launch would have been more than enough. I hope they don't all start doing superheavy rockets. Gigantic waste of money when there are other priorities in aerospace.

There should be funding on nuclear upper stages for deep space missions and transport aircraft designs still don't address several segments.

Unlike the EV industry, I believe a race to the bottom with regards to launch costs may actually be a good thing.