16 March 2022
A Chinese high-thrust oxyhydrogen rocket engine has completed a 520 s-long test in preparation for the upcoming launches of the 2 space station labs, CASC announced on 16 March. The engine is designed for the core stage of the CZ-5 carrier rocket series, which will be used for those launches. The long-duration test verified the reliability of the engine, and there will be more than 20 experimental tasks that the rocket engine will undergo to further test its performance, the company disclosed.
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16 March 2022
CALT engineers are busy preparing the solid-fuelled Smart Dragon 3 launcher for its debut flight in September. The launch is planned to be conducted from a sea-going platform. So far, only the CZ-11 made sea-born launches for China. "We have arranged two to three launch missions by Smart Dragon 3 within this year. We estimate that at least five launches of this rocket will be made each year starting in 2023, as the demand will keep increasing," Jiang Jie, a senior rocket expert at CALT said.
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16 March 2022
The SZ-13 crew will soon give their 2nd open lecture from the Tiangong space station to students around the world, according to CMSA. The agency said that the lecture will take place on 23 March at 15:40 BJT and will be livestreamed worldwide. This time, the taikonauts will conduct diverse experiments such as crystallisation of saturated liquid, liquid bridge, and water-oil separation in space. They will also demonstrate the difference between throwing objects in space and on Earth, and show the audience space science facilities.
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11 March 2022
In an interview with China News Service on 9 March, Wu Weiren, Chief Designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme (CLEP) talked about the need for an international organisation to coordinate limited space resources, including orbits and frequencies. He referred to GEO and the assignment of frequencies which follows the principle of "First come, first served." As a deputy to the National People's Congress, Wu has submitted a proposal concerning the modernisation of space governance. "It can be addressed not by a single country but by the international community, especially major countries," he added.
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12 March 2022
China is planning the construction of a new "global occultation meteorological detection constellation" for gathering high-precision meteorological data based on the interpretation of signals beamed down from satellites, according to CASIC's 2nd Institute. The system will measure the frequency, phase and amplitude of signals transmitted by navigation satellites, recording how they change after passing through the ionosphere and atmosphere. The resulting data will allow meteorologists to calculate the temperature, humidity and pressure of the atmosphere, as well as the ionospheric electron density.
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11 March 2022
Tianqin 1, China’s first satellite for space-based gravitational wave detection, collected in summer 2020 global gravity field data, marking the first time China has obtained such data by self-developed satellite, according to Luo Jun, Chief Scientist of China’s Tianqin programme for space gravitational wave detection. Tianqin 1 is not a dedicated satellite for Earth’s gravity field measurement, rather a technology verification satellite for detecting gravitational wave in space. Collected as a side-result, the data are of less precision but the outcome is significant as it represents the success in pioneering technologies for the whole process of data handling in using low-orbit satellite to estimate global gravity field.
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