09 October 2020
This year marks the 50th anniversary of China’s Fengyun Satellite Program. Up to now, China has launched 17 Fengyun meteorological satellites in total, with 7 in orbit. The Chinese meteorological satellites Fengyun, or FY in acronym, are arranged in series. The odd number series is the polar-orbiting satellite series, and the even number series is the geostationary ones.
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Fengyun Meteorological Satellite Programme to mark its 50th anniversary - an interview with Prof. Xu Jianmin
11 October 2020
The lander and rover of the Chang'e 4 probe have resumed work for the 23rd lunar day on the far side of the Moon. The lander woke up on 11 October at 11:56 h BJT and the Yutu 2 rover woke up on 10 October at 18:57 BJT, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Centre of the China National Space Administration. Chang'e 4 has survived about 647 Earth days on the Moon.
During the 23rd lunar day, Yutu 2 will move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity. It will also use an infrared imaging spectrometer onboard to investigate a lunar rock, which has a diameter of 30 cm.
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11 October 2020
Providing financial support for African nations’ space programmes is helping China to advance its soft power on the continent, experts say. Temidayo Oniosun, a Nigerian space scientist and managing director of industry news website Space in Africa, said: “China often comes to the aid of countries and provides loans for them to acquire satellites ... China is helping African countries in the development of their space programmes by providing technological and financial support,” said Oniosun, who also monitors space and satellite industry investments on the continent. Many African nations already had good trade links with China he said, which helped in the development of space projects, he said.
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10 October 2020
On 9 October, at 23:00 BJT, Tianwen 1 successfully conducted a deep-space maneuver after its main engine worked for over 480 seconds. The maneuver took place 29.4 million km from Earth, aiming to help the probe achieve a sound rendezvous with Mars. The planetary probe will travel along the Earth-Mars transfer orbit for about 4 more months and complete 2 or 3 mid-course orbital corrections.
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Mars probe makes deep-space maneuver
11 October 2020
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stressed speeding up efforts to build the country into a meteorological power and further enhance the capabilities for disaster prevention, reduction and relief. Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in an instruction on the 50th anniversary of the cause of Fengyun meteorological satellites. Li extended in his instruction sincere regards to the meteorological and space workers. The Fengyun satellites are an important space infrastructure for China and a significant symbol of the modernization of the country's meteorology, Li said.
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10 October 2020
Over the past two months, about 2.4 billion RMB (357 million USD) of investment was raised by two major private rocket companies in Beijing. In September alone, two massive manufacturing complexes - one for satellites and another for rockets - started construction in Hebei province's Tangshan and Shandong province's Haiyang.
Now, the southern coastal province of Guangdong is determined to catch up and has chosen to start by building carrier rockets. Last week, Guangzhou, the provincial capital, began construction in cooperation with CAS Space, a Beijing-based startup virtually controlled by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on the country's southernmost production facility for carrier rockets.
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