23 August 2021
This week, Blaine Curcio and Jean Deville discuss the workforce and growth of Chinese launch companies, updates from commercial satellite company Spacety and the 2nd spacewalk by the Shenzhou 12 crew.
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20 August 2021
In China's major space-bred lotus seed production base, Guangchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, lotus flowers are in full bloom, promising a bumper harvest for local farmers. Guangchang has sent lotus seeds to space for 6 times and developed a series of space lotus strains. Space-bred lotus strains are welcomed by growers as they have higher yield, better quality and longer flowering season, compared with traditional varieties.
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20 August 2021
Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming had both slipped out of the space station core module Tianhe by 10:12 BJT on 20 August to conduct the 2nd EVA from the Chinese Space Station. Nie opened the hatch of Tianhe's node cabin at 8:38 BJT. The two astronauts have completed installing the foot restraints and extravehicular working platform on the mechanical arm. They also installed other relevant extravehicular equipment. Astronaut Tang Hongbo has been staying inside Tianhe in cooperation with Nie and Liu for their EVAs.
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CGTN provided footage from the spacewalk
RELATED A peek into the taikonauts' upcoming 2nd spacewalk
18 August 2021
Space agencies of the 5 BRICS countries have signed an Agreement on the Cooperation on BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation via a video meeting. The agreement enables BRICS space agencies to jointly build a "virtual constellation of remote sensing satellites," which works as a data sharing mechanism. The constellation is made up of existing satellites contributed by BRICS space agencies. The satellites include CBERS-4, jointly developed by Brazil and China, Russia's Kanopus-V type, India's Resourcesat-2 and 2A, as well as China's Gaofen-6, and Ziyuan III 02.
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19 August 2021
In the early morning of 19 August, a CZ-4B rocket launched the Tianhui 2-02 satellite group from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province. Take-off was at 6:32 BJT (18 August, 22:32 UTC) The satellites successfully entered the planned orbit.
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18 August 2021
The Shenzhou 12 crew is expected to undertake the second round of EVA during the next days. The Shenzhou 12 taikonauts have undergone a week of in-orbit training, including cardiopulmonary exercises, in preparation for the 2nd spacewalk. On 16 August, the crew and the ground astronaut support system jointly carried out a full-procedure spacewalk rehearsal. The spacewalker will explore optimised and more efficient ways for space walks. The 1st EVA on 4 July was done by Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo. This time it is possible that Nie Haisheng will go out with Liu Boming. Apart from verifying the flexibility and reliability of the spacesuits, a change of the outside mission rosters would also enable all three Shenzhou 12 taikonauts to have actual EVA experience.
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