China's Space Program, News & Views

Originally Posted by delft

This must might mean that the liquid fueled boosters are to be reusable. It doesn't make sense to design for reusability only during testing.
The reusable Space Shuttle boosters used solid fuel.
The first stage of the European Ariane 1 rocket was designed to be reusable, but that was not immediately implemented. The primary use of the Ariane family is the launching of telecom satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbits and for that case a parachute system for the first stage was designed and built. The actual test of the system took place during the 11th launch of an Ariane 1, that of the spacecraft Giotto to the comet Halley on 2 July 1985. The trajectory of the rocket was different from that when launching towards a GTO and the dynamic pressure on the parachute became much higher than in the design case and the anchor of the parachute was pulled out of the rocket. The system was then abandoned.
I do not know about reusability of Russian rockets. But as these generally impact on land it might not be practicable. After all perfectly a reusable rocket far from a road or railway and too heavy to lift by helicopter is still useless.

The article said that the test booster is reusable, it did not mentioned anything about the actual booster being reusable.
Recoverable and reusable engine is listed as one of the long term research goal.
We can see the evidence for that since the booster use the new YF-100 engine, and one of its design criteria is reusability (although not very unusual for LOX/kerosene engine, so not a strong evidence).
Therefore you are probably right that the induction of reusable test booster is because it is part of the step leading to that goal.
The hard part is recoverable and rumours has it that there are competing design for that function and that they have not yet settle on a decision on which research direction to go.

Compass M5 and M6 sat have been launched with success.

China back in action with dual Compass launch

China has launched a new pair of navigation satellites today to upgrade its satellite navigation constellation. The launch of the Compass-M5 and Compass-M6 satellites took place at 19:10UTC on Tuesday from the LC2 launch complex of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, using the powerful Long March-3B/E (Chang Zheng-3B/E).

Developed from the DFH-3B satellite platform, the Compass-M satellites are deployed in 21500~24100 km, 55 degrees inclination intermediate circular orbits.

China has developed two models for Compass-M satellites. The two satellites that where launched today are based on DFH-3B bus and are equipped with an apogee propulsion system for final orbit insertion. The second model is not equipped with an apogee propulsion system and is completely different from DFH-3 bus. Still under development, this model will not fly until the second construction phase of the Compass constellation starts.

...

The satellites transmit signals on the: 1195.14-1219.14MHz, 1256.52-1280.52MHz, 1559.05-1563.15MHz and 1587.69-1591.79MHz, carrier frequencies.

The previous double Beidou-2 ‘Compass’ launch took place on April 29th, 2011, when the Chang Zheng-3B/E (Y14) orbited the ‘Compass-M3′ (38250 2012-018A) and ‘Compass-M4′ (38251 2012-018B) satellites.

DFH-3B is an updated version of DFH-3 bus, a communications satellite bus whose capability is between high and medium ones. It adopts hexahedral structure, consisting of propulsion, service and communication modules, communication antennas and solar arrays and adopts 3-axis stabilized attitude control. Its dimensions are 2200mm × 2000mm × 3100mm, and its mass is 3,800 kg with a payload mass of 400 kg to 450 kg.

This satellite bus is applicable to communications and navigation satellites and deep space probes through adaptive modification...

Vid & Pics

China Has No Timetable for Manned Moon Landing: Chief Scientist

A senior scientist working on China's lunar orbiter project said Wednesday that China has not yet created a timetable for its manned moon landing program.

"Putting a man on the moon involves a very complicated systematic program with many technical challenges to solve, including those related to conducting space walks, docking, staying on the moon and returning," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for the lunar orbiter project, said at a conference of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World held in north China's city of Tianjin.

"China won't carry out a manned moon landing until it masters all of these crucial technologies," said Ouyang, who is also an academician with the Chinese Academy of Science.

Ouyang said China's lunar probe projects currently consist of unmanned moon exploration, a manned moon landing and the building of a moon base.

"China is currently in the first stage," Ouyang said, adding that the first stage involves the orbit, landing and return of lunar spacecraft.

China launched its Chang'e-1 orbiter in 2007 and Chang'e-2 in 2010. The first probe retrieved a great deal of scientific data and a complete map of the moon, while the second created a full high-resolution map of the moon and a high-definition image of Sinus Iridium, a lunar landmark.

China is scheduled to send its third probe, the Chang'e-3, to the moon in 2013 and retrieve it in 2017 after sampling the moon's surface, Ouyang said.

The completion of the three steps will pave the way for a manned lunar mission in the future, he said.

Senior Scientist Discusses China's Lunar Orbiter Challenges: link-1

China to Complete Unmanned Lunar Mission by 2017: link-2

A mission for the Chinese moon program would be for them to do something like Luna 24 (Luna 24 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and / or something like Luna 17 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. That would be impressive

Originally Posted by NikeX

A mission for the Chinese moon program would be for them to do something like Luna 24 (Luna 24 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and / or something like Luna 17 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. That would be impressive

That would be kind of boring. A man space flight to the moon is more challenging and at the same time more rewarding, because you can bring home actual samples and data of the moon to study, like the Apollo program. NOW..a lunar base would be something to get excited about.

Originally Posted by Equation

That would be kind of boring. A man space flight to the moon is more challenging and at the same time more rewarding, because you can bring home actual samples and data of the moon to study, like the Apollo program. NOW..a lunar base would be something to get excited about.

unmanned moon landing can bring back sample...
they need to assure that they can land on the moon and return to earth safely.

Environment Sat HJ-1C has completed thermal balance, thermal vacuum and thermal magnetic tests.

After three years of research, Beijing Aerospace Machinery Company has developed an Automatic Welding Machine employed to make 3.3m diameter booster tanks. It use the single-sided two-layer welding technique to made the process fully automated:CALT

I think this thing is related to longitudinal and circumferential Friction Stir Welding (FSW) method. It has been used to make the Space Shuttle tanks. FWS can appear simple but it is'nt because the parts must be prevented from moving as welding progresses. This requires very high forces.

LM-5 project switch to prototype development and large-scale ground test phase: LINK