27 June 2021
In his article "One Day in Space", Yang recalled several breathtaking moments when he thought he could not make it through the trip back. "When the rocket lifted to a height about 30-40 kilometers above the ground, I felt it begin to vibrate violently, and it was extremely painful," he said. "Then the accident happened. The fierce vibration was shattering my body, and the pain had grown unbearable. I thought I was going to die," Yang recalled. The deadly moment lasted for 26 seconds. When it was finally over, the taikonaut, all alone in the vastness of space, felt like he had been reborn. As the ground control finally saw Yang slightly blinking his eyes through the surveillance camera onboard the craft, his colleagues burst out crying, "He's blinking! Yang is alive!"
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27 June 2021
This time, Blaine Curcio and Jean Deville focus on the design changes for the super heavy CZ-9 rocket as presented last week by Long Lehao during a talk at the University of Hong Kong. The two experts also give an update on China SatNet and the 50 billion RMB Satellite Industry Fund which will be set up in Shenzhen.
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28 June 2021
A foundation stone laying ceremony was held on Saturday in Xining, Northwest China's Qinghai Province, for the construction of a survey telescope array which will be mainly used to detect space debris in medium and high orbits. The multi-application survey telescope array, MASTA, developed by the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is planned to be built in the astronomical observation base in the town of Lenghu, in the Gobi Desert, Qinghai Province, with an average altitude of 3,800 meters above sea level.
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23 June 2021
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is hosting the HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) - the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTec manages the MRO for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
On 6 June, HiRISE acquired a first image of Tianwen's landing site and on 11 June another one. The landing site remains distinctly colored from removal of Martian dust during landing and movement of the Zhurong rover toward the south can be seen when comparing the two images.
This second image also allowed the camera team to create a 3D stereo view.
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27 June 2021
On 27 June, CNSA released new videos and images of Zhurong's landing and exploring the Red Planet. The videos show the parachute deployment and descending to the Martian surface, and at the end of the 23 sec sequence the moment the Zhurong rover was driving away from its landing platform and moving over the land. Another short video published has the ambient sound during the process of Zhurong's rolling onto the Martian surface recorded.The images include the Martian landscape and the ruts left behind by the rover. As of the morning of 27 June, the Tianwen 1 orbiter has been in operation for 338 days, and its Earth-Mars distance was approximately 360 million km. The Mars rover Zhurong has been working on Mars for 42 Martian days and has driven a total of 236 m. Zhurong will continue its movement, detection, and scientific exploration missions as planned. The orbiter will continue to operate in a relay orbit, providing relay communication for the rover's scientific exploration while conducting its own scientific detection operations.
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link to the news on the CNSA website (with links to previously released videos)
26 June 2021
Hong Kong residents can enjoy in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre a display of the achievements of China's scientists over the past 100 years and some lunar soil brought back to Earth by the Chang'e 5 spacecraft in December 2020. The free exhibition will be open to the public from 27 June to 9 July - from 10:00 h to 18:00 h on weekdays and from 10:00 h to 20:00 h on weekends. The opening ceremony was held on 26 June. Visitors need to register online in advance. Hong Kong is closely involved in the mainland's space programme. For example, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University designed a system to collect and pack samples on lunar surface for the Chang'e 5 mission in 2020 and also for the upcoming Chang-e 6 mission. Also the Mars Landing Surveillance Camera for the Tianwen 1 mission was developed by a team from PolyU.
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