09 September 2020
As of 1 September, the Chang'e 3 lunar mission has been on the Moon for 2,453 Earth days, and some of the scientific payloads carried by the lander are still operating, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Center of the China National Space Administration. After analyzing the transmitted data, Chinese researchers recently reported finding multilayered young lava flows in the northeast of Mare Imbrium, also called Sea of Rains, where the Chang'e 3 mission made a soft landing in December 2013.
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09 September 2020
China plans to establish a scientific station on the Moon and has started preparatory research, said Wu Weiren, Chief Designer of China's lunar exploration programme and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is now working on the planning and feasibility research on the proposed station and the lunar programme's 4th step. The scientist made the remarks at a ceremony on 08 September at the China National Space Administration that announced the naming of an asteroid after him.
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Asteroid named after Wu Weiren

08 September 2020
Based on Chang'e-4 data, Chinese scientists have determined the thickness of the regolith and revealed the fine subsurface structures and evolutionary history of the probe's landing site on the Moon's far side. The study revealed that the landing area of the probe, located within the largest and oldest impact basin on the moon, had experienced multiple impact events and basalt magma eruptions.
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article in Nature Astronomy: Lunar regolith and substructure at Chang’E-4 landing site in South Pole-Aitken basin

07 September 2020
CASIC plans to launch in 2021 12 satellites of the Xingyun project, China's first low-Earth-orbit narrowband constellation for IoT operated by its subsidiary Xingyun Satellite Co. The constellation will be completed around 2023, consisting of 80 satellites. The first stage of the project was completed after two satellites Xingyun-2 01 and 02 entered their orbits in May this year. The satellites utilize inter-satellite laser links, which enable them to communicate over long distances and hence upgrade the real-time performance of communication services.
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07 September 2020
China launched the Gaofen 11-02 optical remote-sensing satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in northern Shanxi Province on 07 September. The Long March-4B rocket took off at 13:57 BJT. It was the 345th flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket. Gaofen 11-02 has a resolution up to the sub-meter level. It will be mainly used for land surveys, city planning, land rights confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation. The new satellite will also offer information support for the Belt-and-Road construction
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06 September 2020
China's reusable experimental spacecraft returned to its preset landing site in the morning of 6 September, completing its two-day in-orbit operation. Xinhua reported that the spacecraft's mission was completely successful and proved that the vehicle is able to carry out spaceflight in a convenient, affordable manner. The agency did not give details about the operation, such as how the spacecraft made the landing and the landing site.
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Part 2: China’s Spaceplane Projects: Past, Present and Future
Part 1: A Historical Perspective on Chinese Spaceplanes