China AeroSpace

23/07/2015

Good morning ! Greetings from the Sun

Photo credits : NASA

27/06/2015

Gaofen-8 satellite successfully launched into orbit 中国成功发射高分八号高分辨率对地观测卫星
2015-06-27

24/06/2015

The Long March 5 rocket is one step closer in becoming operational after a successful flaring separation test. The first flight of the Long March 5 rocket is expected to take place sometimes in 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqivudPZhU =47

China's largest rocket yet, the Long March 5' (CZ-5), undergoes tests ahead of its debut in 2016. On March 23, 2015, China successfully tested the core engin...

03/05/2015

Moscow may team up with Beijing to create a scientific station on the Moon. The challenge for Russia is to build its own space station by 2024 to achieve its lunar exploration goals.

According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who supervises defense-related policies, the question on "bringing China in as the main partner in creating a lunar scientific station," is currently being discussed with Roscosmos.

"We have told China of our plans about the possibility of creating a Russian national orbital station," Rogozin told journalists after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in China on Tuesday.

Rogozin said that both parties share "deep mutual understanding and mutual interests" in space-related projects.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said previously that Beijing plans to boost its cooperation with Russia in a number of areas, including space.
Roscosmos is looking at opportunities to study the Moon, using robotic equipment over the next decade, with the goal of sending manned missions to the moon by 2030, TASS cited the Roscosmos Science and Technology board as saying in February.

The proposed space station would give Russia's space agency a platform to further its goals to explore the Moon.

Roscosmos head Igor Komarov said last week that Russia expects to carry out a manned mission to orbit the Moon in 2025. Russian cosmonauts should be ready to conduct a manned landing on the surface of the Moon in 2029, he added.

Russia has had its own space station in the past. The Mir space station was deorbited in 2001, splashing down into the Pacific Ocean after spending more than 5,500 days in space. Russia cited the age of the station and the high operational costs as the reasons for the decision.
China is currently burning the midnight oil working on its Long March-9 rocket. It has "unprecedented lift capability" and will be the country’s first manned lunar mission. Its payload will be 130 tons, which coincides with the lift capability of the Space Launch System being developed by NASA, the China Daily reports. The first launch of the rocket is planned for 2028.

The Chinese government is also planning to launch its own orbiting station by 2020 and to send men to the Moon. In 2013, China sent the first lunar rover, the Jade Rabbit, to scour the Moon. In November last year, the Chinese also presented a prototype of their Mars rover.
-RT

03/05/2015

Is the Pentagon ready to dump the GPS?
http://thediplomat.com/2015/05/is-the-pentagon-getting-ready-to-dump-gps/

04/04/2015

Beidou Goes Global
China launched a new-generation satellite into space on Monday night, starting the expansion of its indigenous navigation and positioning network to global coverage. The satellite, the 20th for the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, was sent into orbit by the Yuanzheng-1 upper stage vehicle after being lifted by a Long March-3C carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.

The launch is the first step in China's plan to turn the navigation system's current regional service into global coverage, according to a statement issued by the center. China launched the first Beidou satellite in 2000. The system began providing positioning, navigation, timing and short-message services to civilian users in China and surrounding areas in the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012. Currently, the system consists of 15 satellites.

The latest satellite will test a host of new technologies essential for the global transformation, including a cutting-edge navigation signaling mechanism and advanced links between satellites.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, one of the major players in the nation's space activities, said in a statement that Monday's launch also marked the first flight of the Yuanzheng-1 upper stage vehicle developed by its China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

The independent vehicle－dubbed a "shuttle bus in space" by some experts－is capable of sending multiple spacecraft into different orbits during a single mission. It is able to ferry satellites using its own power system after reaching an initial orbit atop a rocket, said Liang Xiaohong, vice-president of the academy.

"The Yuanzheng-1 will play an important role in China's future moon and Mars exploration projects and space debris disposal tasks," he said. "In the past, our satellites had to install engines for their orbital transfer, and they carried a lot of fuel. Now the upper stage vehicle enables us to remove the engines and fuel from the satellite and prolong its life span."

The adoption of the cutting-edge spacecraft will also help to reduce costs for satellite launches and meet rising demand for spaceflight, Liang said.
-Chinadaily

BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch three or four more satellites for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network this year, the network's chief designer said.

A complete network will take shape by 2020, Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), was quoted saying by the PLA Daily on Wednesday.

The 17th satellite in the BDS global network was launched on Monday, marking the first step to expand it from a regional to global service.

The BDS global network will be made up of 35 satellites, five of which will be in geostationary orbit.

Compared with the satellites already in operation, the latest has longer life and higher accuracy, Yang said.

Its service life is around ten to 12 years compared with eight years of the old model, and the maximum accuracy is two to three meters, he said.

China launched the first BDS satellite in 2000. In December 2012, it began providing positioning, navigation, timing and short message services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific.

The system has been gradually introduced into transportation, weather forecasts, marine fishing, forestry and telecommunications.

The new satellite was developed by the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites, a non-profit organization established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Municipal Government.
-Xinhua

The Beidou network will consist of 35 satellites when complete in 2020. The satellites will be scattered in three types of orbits — geosynchronous orbit over the equator and in inclined orbits circling 22,300 miles and 13,300 miles above Earth.

The flight path taken by the Long March rocket indicates the satellite was destined for one of the Beidou system’s inclined orbits.

Xinhua reported a new Chinese upper stage accompanied the Long March 3C rocket launched Monday to inject the Beidou spacecraft into a near-circular orbit close its final operating position, eliminating the need for the satellite to complete the maneuvers itself.

Equipped with a long-life battery, the Yuanzheng stage can fire its engine multiple times during flights lasting up to six hours.

Monday’s launch marked the first spacecraft put in orbit for the third phase of the deployment of China’s Beidou network, which has provided regional navigation coverage over the Asia-Pacific since the end of 2012.
-Spaceflightnow
Some related coverage:
中国航天 - 我国成功发射首颗新一代北斗卫星
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdhWidlq_F8
中国航天 - 新一代北斗导航卫星成功发射
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4iKiCWmFV4
中国航天 - 首颗新一代北斗导航卫星成功发射
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKk_iFBIyZo
中国航天 - 北斗服务 融合改变生活
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjYalBkPrAY
中国航天 - 北斗全球组网开始 人造“北斗”的奥秘
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqa6SkxqQwc

01/04/2015

China may build power stations in space
To eliminate smog caused by burning fossil fuels, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and solve the energy crisis, experts have suggested that China should build a solar power station in a geosynchronous orbit 36,000 kilometers above the Earth. Once realized, this would be the most ambitious space project ever, far exceeding the scale of the Apollo program and the International Space Station.
How big is it?
The solar power station would be very large. The area of its solar panels would reach from 5 to 6 square kilometers, equivalent to the area of about 12 Tiananmen Squares, says Wang Xiji, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Maybe you would be able to see it in the sky at night, like a star", according to Wang.
Researchers have also proposed that the space station could be square, round, or bowl-shaped.
But why build a power station in space?
Wang says the electricity generated by ground-based solar plants fluctuates as night alternates with day, as well as with the weather, while a space-based generator would collect energy 99 percent of the time.
Generating capacity per area unit of a space-based solar panels would be 9 times more than on the ground, says Duan Baoyan, a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering.
However, building such a huge power station in the space would not be easy and there are some key technological problems to be solved.
China could build a space station in the next five years, which would bring great opportunities for the development of the solar power station in space, said Li Ming, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Space Technology.
Large-scale structure and assembly technology from the space station would be used for research into the solar power station in space. The key technologies for the power plant could be verified on the space station.
The carrying capacity of Chinese rockets is growing and it is expected that research into a new generation heavy launch vehicle will be carried out, according to Li Ming.
What would a space-based solar power station be like?
The power station would be a super spacecraft on a geosynchronous orbit equipped with huge solar panels. The electricity generated would be converted to microwaves or lasers and transmitted to a collector on Earth.

12/03/2015

China will launch its Chang'e-4 lunar probe before 2020, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said Thursday.
The lunar mission will pilot a program that uses private investment from individuals and enterprises for the first time. (file pic)

China will launch its Chang'e-4 lunar probe before 2020, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) said Thursday.

The lunar mission will pilot a program that uses private investment from individuals and enterprises for the first time. (file pic)

http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0312/c202936-8862301.html

11/03/2015

05/03/2015

China is planning to launch its space station in 2018 and complete the project by 2022, Zhang Bonan, chief designer of China's manned spacecraft system, told China News Service on Wednesday.

The station will be multi-cabin with a large capacity and high power, where Chinese scientists and their international colleagues will be able to work together in labs, according to Zhang, who is also a deputy of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

The challenges that China needs to overcome are mainly supply lines, including the absorption of carbon dioxide and the collection and reuse of urine, to enable astronauts to live in space for a long time.

The scientist also said both China's Tiangong-1 space module launched in 2011 and the Tiangong-1 scheduled in 2016 serve to test the technology for life support systems.

China has conducted experiments with small-scale closed ecological systems on the ground to produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide by growing vegetables and using urine as fertilizer.

It is expected that astronauts can live off this ecological system, rather than on outside assistance, but the difficulty to maintain the balance is enormous, Zhang added.

But Zhang said that if humans want to move to other planets, an ecological system is a precondition.

http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0305/c202936-8858053.html

Chinaisplanningtolaunchitsspacestationin2018andcompletetheprojectby2022,ZhangBonan,chiefdesignerofCh

25/02/2015

Precision service infrastructure for China's Beidou satellite navigation system will be built on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau as part of efforts to create a nationwide base station network for high precision navigation and positioning by 2018.

The infrastructure will be built in Qinghai's Xining, the provincial capital, and Haidong City, said an official with the First Institute of Surveying and Mapping of Qinghai on Monday.

He did not give more details about the project in Qinghai.

The infrastructure is critical to practical navigation and includes base station networks, data processing, broadcasting systems and user terminals, which together will help provide more precision services.

Beidou is the Chinese equivalent of the U.S. NAVSTAR Global Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System. Currently, Beidou owns 20 satellites.

The system began to provide precision positioning, real-time navigation, location reporting, precise time reading and short message services for users in China and the Asia-Pacific in December 2012. The government aims to make it a global system by 2020.
http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0224/c202936-8853106.html

XINING,Feb.23(Xinhua)--PrecisionserviceinfrastructureforChina'sBeidousatellitenavigationsystemwillbe

19/02/2015

China's space program is catching up with that of the United States and Washington must invest in military and civilian programs if it is to remain the world's dominant space power, a congressional hearing heard on Wednesday.

Experts speaking to Congress's U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China's fast advances in military and civilian space technology were part of a long-term strategy to shape the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific.

They also reflect an enthusiasm for space exploration which in the United States has faded since the Apollo Program which landed Americans on the moon in 1969, they said.

"China right now is experiencing its Apollo years," Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told the hearing. "China gets the funding its needs."

While the budget of the U.S. space agency NASA has been cut substantially, China's space program has benefited from its economic boom and political support from President Xi Jinping down, said Kevin Pollpeter, a China technology expert at the University of California-San Diego.

"They are also able to program out their activities into five-year plans and 15-year plans and this gives them a long-range goal to work with," he told the hearing.

"If the United States is to remain the leading space power then it must continue to invest in both its civilian and military space programs."

Dean Cheng, of the Heritage Foundation think tank, said the U.S. space industrial complex is failing in long-term planning and is aging compared to China's. It is particularly lacking in Chinese speakers with the scientific skills needed.

"China's space industrial workforce is perhaps the youngest of the space industrial powers," Cheng added. "They will be working at this for a long time. Innovation at the end of the day does tend to come from young people."

Xi has said he wants China to establish itself as a space superpower, but Beijing has insisted its program is for peaceful purposes.

Fears of a space arms race mounted in 2007 after China blew up one of its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/us-usa-china-space-idUSKBN0LM22O20150218

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's space program is catching up with that of the United States and Washington must invest in military and civilian programs if it is to remain the world's dominant space power,