China's Space Program Thread II

[CVNisCV]

"Linghangzhe" has departed under tow by the tugboat, bound for the eastern waters of the Xisha Islands. The ship will recover the Long March 10B first stage, to be launched in a few days.

 

[PopularScience]

The bottleneck of low orbit communication satellite is radio frequency spectrum.

The bottleneck of AI satellite is heat dissipation.

 

[TheRathalos]

Latest qianfan leo batch launched

At the rate rhey are going seems qianfan will be operational before Guowang. Earlier i thought it would be the opposite, since Guowang is more strategic for the government. Seems spacesail finally sorted out their teething issues they faced with earlier satellites. Hopefully they can not only maintain the current momentum but also increase it.
I wonder when they can increase satelittes per launch to 23 to 28 like starlink in future. Saves more costs and efficiency.

AFAIK Guowang is already operational for limited governmental use (iirc, "diplomatic uses") since about the end of 2025/early 2026; the number, altitude and spread of the wenchang-launched sats have probably enabled constant coverage at mid-latitude for some months at least.

Anyway, Another Qianfan batch today, Group 15 (skipped one in the numbering) of 20 satellites on CZ-8A at 21:43 BJT, 2 more sats than on previous batches

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CALT lists a number of improvement on this CZ-8A launch (the first in 4 months) such as:
-2nd stage engine YF-75DA replaced by YF-75DB, which can restart 2 times instead of once.
-2nd stage orbital cruise time prolonged to multiple hours for more complicated maneuvers
-Launch profile optimization, structural weight reduction, pressurization, propellant feed and pneumatic systems improvement resulting in almost 1t of payload increase or alternatively enabling the delivery of the same payload to an orbit 200km higher
-Optimisation of the Launch vehicle assembly and testing, including the use of a new, second, vertical test station at HCS's assembly all enabling 30 launches a year.
-Further Control and telemetry systems improvements are expected on the next launch (Y10)

Btw, we now know CZ-8A launches are being sold at 245M RMB ($36.1M) according

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for the eXTP telescope (scheduled for 2030),

 

[NoetherSpudCharge]

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confirmed that with the launch today, we are at 218 sats. Still need quite a few launches before end of this month if they want to hit 324.

Another day, another batch (20 satellites). So they're up to 238 now, 96 from the 324 figure (~ five launches); seems doable.