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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China successfully launches core module for its own space station, kicking off intense construction phase
Core module of China's space station enters planned orbit
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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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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27 April 2021
Blaine Curcio of Orbital Gateway Consulting and Jean Deville of The China Aerospace Blog are reporting for SpaceWatch.Global on China's main space events of the last week. This time the two experts cover 4 recent topics: 1. The 6th China Space Day; 2. ChinaSat's statements about China’s Constellation Plans; 3. SpaceTY and Intane Optics complete China’s first private satellite-ground laser comms experiment, and 4. Tianbing Aerospace Announces an Intelligent Rocket Manufacturing Base in Suzhou. Like always: this is an highly interesting and informative read or podcast!!!
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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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27 April 2021
On 27 April at 11:20 BJT, a Long March 6 launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in North China's Shanxi province. 9 satellites, including Qilu 1 and Qilu 4, have entered their planned orbits and will provide East China's Shandong province with remote sensing services for land survey, urban construction, agriculture, forestry, energy, disaster prevention and reduction. Other satellites onboard the rocket were the Foshan 1, the Zhong'an Guotong 1, Apocalypse Constellation 09, Originspace NEO 1, Taijing 2-01, Golden Bauhinia 1-01 and Golden Bauhinia 1-02. They will be used to test technologies in satellite platform design, real-time imaging and observation, data acquisition and transmission, or to offer observations of small celestial bodies and remote sensing services. The CZ-6 is scheduled for 4 flights in 2021.
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For better details on the satellites and the mission - see the Chinese language website of 'spaceflightfans'
http://www.spaceflightfans.cn/92600.html
and here:
http://www.spaceflightfans.cn/92596.html