Liaoning Province upgrades satellite base stations
28 April 2021
Liaoning Province in the NorthEast of China will upgrade all its 58 satellite navigation and positioning base stations by May. The average distance between BeiDou base stations in the province is 60 km. The real-time positioning accuracy is stable at 3-5 centimeters. The base stations will be able to receive, store and process multimode satellite signals including BeiDou, GPS and GLONASS. Ten base stations had been upgraded by March, equipped with updated high-resolution data processing and real-time service software from China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).
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New sea launch hub becomes operational in May
27 April 2021
China's new sea launch facility, located in the coastal city of Haiyang, East China's Shandong Province, will become operational in May. The sea launch base is supported by a hub infrastructure for rocket manufacturing and testing and other equipment and application centres and it will be capable of general assembly and testing for at least 10 solid-propellant rockets per year. The base's capacity will increase to 20 rockets per year by October 2022, Li Shaoning, Deputy Chief Engineer with the project developer and rocket manufacturer China Rocket Co, a CALT subsidiary, told Global Times media during an exclusive interview on 27 April.
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The new orbiting laboratory will host research from Chinese and international scientists
21 April 2021
Ling Xin summerises for Scientific American the upcoming launches for the Chinese Space Station, explains the layout and function of the CSS and which science can be expected on the orbital outpost. She also has some interesting insight about the difficulties for European researchers when applying for research grants to conduct space experiments on the CSS.
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Tianhe is in orbit
29 April 2021
The CZ-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, launched at 11:23 BJT from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan. Tianhe has a total length of 16.6 m, a maximum diameter of 4.2 m and a takeoff mass of 22.5 t, and is the largest spacecraft developed by China. China will also send the Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft and Shenzhou 12 crewed spaceship this year to dock with the core module. 2 taikonauts will be aboard Shenzhou 12 and stay in orbit for 3 months, said Hao Chun, Director of the CMSA. 2 more crews and cargo supply missions will follow next year.
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