China's Space Program, News & Views

Launch vid. The networking between TL-1 sats data will be completed before the end of the year. The development of second generation TDRS, TL-2, has already started

more pics

Jiasheng WANG, the chief engineer of these sat explains their difference with its NASA TDRS.





Schema to illustrate the positioning.



Jin Liu, the deputy chief engineer of TL-1 sats. He is also the assistant chief engineer of the manned program.

A paper presented by CASC and CGWIC at the World Space Risk Forum, held this year in Dubai: CHINESE LAUNCHERS & COMSATS
Nothing new but it talks about 2 DHF-4 sat platform variants under dev: DHF-4S and DHF-4E

On chinese forums (like here) there are talks about what seems to be a sub-orbital launch of the CZ-2C rocket from TSLC at around 16:00 UTC on July 24. Keywords like "90 days", "Back on Earth", "Congratulations from the Party", "CAEP (China Academy of Engineering Physics)" were used. I wonder if it was a test of Shenlong spacecraft ?????

The engineering model of CE-3 was transported to XSLC in June for practices of the launch campaign. This is one of the reasons why no launches were scheduled from Xichang last month: 9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&pid=210070&pt id=451

In a vid Ouyang Ziyuan presents a list of instruments to be carried on board the lander and the rover. Three of them are worth mentioning:

* The lander will carry an optical telescope operate in the near UV region, and will target close binary stars, active galactic nuclei, short-period variable stars etc.

* Also on the lander is a far UV region camera that will observe the 30.4 nanometer band radiation from the Earth's ionosphere. This will monitor the effect of space weather, solar activity, Earth's geomagnetic field and particle streams on the Earth's ionosphere.

* The rover will carry a radar on it's bottom side, allowing for the first direct observation of the structure and depth of lunar soil down to 30 meters deep and the lunar crust structure down to a depth several hundred meters.

Other instruments include:

Lander: 3 x panoramic cameras, 1 x descent camera, 1 x extensible lunar soil probe, 1 x lander engineering package, 1 x lander data controller

Rover: 2 x panoramic cameras, 2 x navigation and engineering camera sets, 1 x alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, 1 x infrared spectrometer, 1 x lander engineering package, 1 x lander data controller.

More details on the Hainan Space Centre emerging


Tracking station, office and living area

With the construction of a new space launch centre underway in Wenchang, Hainan Island, more details about the launch centre began to emerge on the Internet.

Background

The Hainan Satellite Launch Centre is the fourth space launch facility in China, after Jiuquan, Taiyuan and Xichang. Construction of the launch centre began in August 2007 and will complete in 2013, with the first launch expected in 2014. Once fully operational, it will replace the existing launch centre in Xichang for geostationary orbit launch missions as well as the launch of heavy space station modules and deep space probes.

The proximity of the launch centre to the equator (19° north) gives an orbital speed bonus gained from the Earth’s rotational speed for the launch vehicle. The effectively reduces the amount of propellants required for the satellite’s manoeuvre from the transfer orbit to GEO. The coastal location of the launch centre also allows rocket debris to fall into the sea.

The local Hainan government is also planning to build a space theme park nearby, where spectators will be able to watch space launches taking place. The theme park will include an aerospace museum and spaceflight simulators.

Satellite Images

The latest satellite map of search engine Bing provided some valuable images of the construction site at Wenchang. From the images it can be clearly seen that a launch complex with two launch pads are currently under construction. Launch vehicles will be rolled out from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad via a rail track about 2.8km in length. To its north is a large technical area for rocket and spacecraft preparation and checkout.

Launch pad #1 will be used for the launch of the 5m-diameter Changzheng 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle, while launch pad #2 will be used for the launch of the 3.35m-diametre Changzheng 7 launch vehicle. The two launch pads will each have its own vehicle assembly building, so that two launch campaigns can be conducted simultaneously.


Satellite image showing the layout of the Hainan Satellite Launch Centre


CZ-5 launch pad


CZ-7 launch pad

New Details

Close-in photos of the construction taken by anonymous amateur photographers have also been published on the Chinese Internet. A photo of the billboard on display at the construction site gave some more details about the structure of the launch centre.

According to the billboard, the Hainan Satellite Launch Centre will consist of a launch site in Longlou, an office and living site in Wenchang City, and a second office and living site in Hainan. Launch vehicles in ascent will be observed by two tracking stations using radar and optical tracking. The first tracking station will be located at Tongguling, about 5km east of the launch site. The second tracking station will be located in the Paracel Islands (known as Xisha Islands in Chinese), about 380km southeast of the launch site.

Originally Posted by escobar

In a vid Ouyang Ziyuan presents a list of instruments to be carried on board the lander and the rover. Three of them are worth mentioning:

Perhaps the CE-3 should do a blast crater experiment i.e. how much of an effect the rocket engine exhaust would have on the moon surface in respect of, for example, creating a crater. The moon conspiracy theorists or the debunkers will probably be very interested in the outcome.

HJT greets the three astronauts and technical managers of SZ-9 mission.

Initial Assessment of the COMPASS/BeiDou-2 Regional Navigation Satellite System: pdf
i quote

...While it remains unclear for most COMPASS/BeiDou-2 satellites, whether Chinese or European rubidium clocks are currently active as primary frequency standards, the observed clock performance is, in any case, well competitive with other GNSS satellites. However, it does not reach the high stability of the latest generation of GPS Block IIF (and QZSS) Rubidium clocks and the hydrogen masers of GIOVE-B/Galileo.

There will be YF-100 engine test live today around 03:20 UTC

China will test the main engine of its most powerful rocket in northwestern Shaanxi Province on Sunday.

The rocket is set to be launched in 2014, and the present test is on its main engine, which will be required to keep a stable condition amidst harsh conditions including extreme high temperatures.

The engine of the new-generation rocket will have a propulsive power of more than 1,100 tons during the blast-off, a marked increase from the 600-ton driving power of the Long March-2F rocket, which carried the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft into space. The test will last 200 seconds.

Long March-5 will be the biggest rocket ever designed by China, with a diameter of five meters and a maximum height of 63.2 meters.

Successful test. Big step towards LM5.

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China develops cargo spaceship

Zha Xuelei, deputy architect of the China Manned Space Engineering Cargo Spaceship, reveals that the space agency is developing the cargo spaceship at Shanghai Science Communication Forum and the 40th Academician Forum held in Shanghai recently.

Zha says that China will finish the first Chinese space station around 2020. The space station consists of 5 modules including a core module, two laboratory units, a manned spacecraft and a cargo spaceship to supply fuel and food for the space station, ensuring energy and logistics for the space mission.

Observers said China’s 1st cargo spaceship will match Japan's HTV cargo freighter which is in charge of carrying supplies for the International Space Station in China’s future space