Lunar samples for backup stored in Chairman Mao's home town
25 December 2021
A handover ceremony of CE-5 lunar samples, used for backup storage, was held on 25 December in Shaoshan, central China's Hunan Province. Shaoshan is also the home town of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The CE-5 samples were handed over to Hunan University by the CNSA and will be stored in the newly constructed base, the country's only facility dedicated to lunar sample backup storage.
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ZY-1 02E geological environment monitoring satellite launched
26 December 2021
On 26 December at 11:11 BJT, the ZY-1 02E satellite was launched by a CZ-4C from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre. The satellite, developed by the CAST, will work in the solar synchronous orbit. It carries a near-infrared camera, a hyper-spectral camera and an infrared camera.
On board the CZ-4C was a secondary payload - a small satellite belonging to the Beijing 101 Middle School which will be used educational purposes.
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Shenzhou 13 taikonauts complete 2nd EVA
26/27 December 2021
Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu have completed their EVA and returned to the Space Station core module Tianhe, CMSA said in the early hours of 27 December. CMSA declared the EVA a complete success. This was the 4th time that taikonauts conducted an EVA during the construction of the CSS and the 2nd by the Shenzhou 13 crew.
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China Space Station: Collision Avoidance Control Manoeuvres
27 December 2021
Leonard David dedicated 2 detailed articles on his blog Inside Outer Space to the preventive collision avoidance manoeuvres of the CSS in July and October this year. "China’s in-progress space station has performed preventive collision avoidance control to avoid being struck by SpaceX Starlink satellites. China has informed the United Nations Secretary-General of the issue. In a document posted by the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space dated December 6, 2021, there is notification by China under Article V of the Outer Space Treaty concerning preventive collision avoidance between the China Space Station (international designation 2021-035A) and United States’ Starlink-1095 (international designation 2020-001BK) and Starlink-2305 (international designation 2021-024N) satellites."
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China Urges the U.S. to Protect the Safety of its Space Station Astronauts