05 March 2022
This year, China will launch two 2 laboratory modules during the stay of the SZ-14 crewed mission. The SZ-15 crew will fly to the space station before the end of this year and join the SZ-14 crew. For a short while at the end of 2022, the Space Station will host 6 taikonauts.
The development of 13 significant technology breakthroughs in rocket development are the precondition for a Chinese human lunar landing around 2030. A new-generation manned rocket is one of them. It would also lay the foundation for follow-up lunar exploration and scientific investigation, deep-space exploration and the utilisation of space resources.
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02 March 2022
Leonard David tries to shed some light on the space debris, expected to impact the Moon soon. Originally, the piece was thought to be part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Deep Space Climate Observatory in 2015. However, the object is now tied to a Chinese Long March 3C rocket that blasted off in 2014. Tagging the out-of-control stage to China comes from Bill Gray, manager of Project Pluto that supplies astronomical software, both commercial and freeware, to amateur and professional astronomers.
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28 February 2022
Last December, China filed a note verbale to the UN claiming that two SpaceX Starlink satellites made close encounters to the China Space Station (CSS). Such events could easily be politicised considering the current geopolitical environment, which does not help solving the real problem in space. Chen Lan tries to analyse technical and management aspects of the event in order to sort things out and see what went wrong.
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RELATED: US awaits answers after China cries foul over purported sat threat to taikonauts
There is one bright spot in the ongoing US-China space traffic brouhaha: Beijing has begun publishing for the first time the basic orbital positions of its crewed space station.
27 February 2022
This week, Jean Deville and Blaine Curcio discuss Chinese rocket concepts for crewed space missions and the growing trend of rideshare launches in China. More news can be found in their weekly newsletter.
And if you like to support Jean and Blaine, maybe you would like to buy them a coffee?
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01 March 2022
Space tracking vessel Yuanwang 6 departed on 1 March from its homeport in east China's Jiangsu Province for a new round of monitoring missions in the Indian Ocean.
Before departure, the ship's personnel completed vessel examination and maintenance, ensuring all systems and facilities aboard YW-6 were in good working order.
YW-6 returned to its homeport on 9 December last year after completing 3 satellite monitoring missions.
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27 February 2022
China launched a CZ-8 rocket and placed 22 satellites in space on 27 February, setting a domestic record for the most spacecraft launched by a single rocket. 15 min after launch, the satellites were released in 12 groups. They will be mainly used for commercial remote sensing services, marine environment monitoring, forest fire prevention and disaster mitigation. 10 of the satellites belong to Changguang Satellite Technology. The other payloads belong to 6 other entities - institutes or private companies.
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