I don't think there's anything new there that we don't know already.
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Do you or the poster that you quoted even know what the subject is? China's internet constellation and Starlink are different things to begin with. China's constellation is based on 3GPP recommendations and part of 6G network, the standard hasn't even been finalized yet, all the launches so far are prototypes, who is going to launch thousands of prototypes now only to find out that they are not fully complying to standard in the future? Starlink can launch as many as they want because it is following its own standard or no standard depending how one puts it.
To put the matter in right perspective, China is the leader in deploying 6G complying broadband constellation ahead of everybody.
It is a plain propaganda piece, see my post 6052.
i was about to post this.
this is nothing but another dogshit article from western experts. and they quote US space force as source.. Lmao
number of launches and heavy lift rockets for constellation will be sort out by next year..
I don't think the piece is total propaganda, Chinese constellation program has had some setbacks and is probably behind their stated schedule. See Jilin-1 delayed from 2025 to 2027 (post 6003, 6011), 2024 target of 100 launches missed by a significant margin (post 5749), and Thousand Sails targeting 648 satellites by end of 2025 () which seems like it's not gonna happen.
This is all info that has been publicly known for a while now, there's no point in trying to hide it. Space is hard and these things take time, there's no getting around that. It will take another year or two before we see large scale reusable rocket launches and that's if everything goes perfectly. There are real bottlenecks, that's not propaganda.
That said some of the piece is pretty much propaganda like the claims that Thousand Sails and Guowang are in trouble of not making clear progress toward its goal in 7 years. There are a lot of companies working on reusable rockets in China, these bottlenecks are going to be solved. The constellations might be delayed by 2-3 years or something but they will get there. China has all the tech it just needs time and really not that much time if you compare it to delays in other space programs.
That is how a "high-end" propaganda works, stuffing lots of partial and less or even irrelevant "fact, truths" in the fundamentally faulty claim. The focus of the post was about "internet constellation", whose implementation is affected by many factors among which standard being not finalized is the most important factor IMO. Ignoring this critical factor and compare with starlink is what I call the "high-end" propaganda, in the same manner as switching concept. Long list of facts in the post doesn't matter anymore once the context has been twisted. It is like Americans arguing two men are married while Chinese calls it a farce because the central concept has been changed.
I have experienced decades of western "sophisticated" propaganda since the CNN coverage of Tibeten riot with partial truth. So-called "professionals" telling selected "truth" with a color filter. Once I see such behaviour, those "truths" worth nothing.
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I mean objectively Chinese plans for satellite constellations are behind their own stated goals. Like I explained in my last post, that part is not a secret or propaganda. You can argue about standards causing some delays but fundamentally the constellations are behind because of more mundane factors like lack of launch capacity, satellite production, etc. It's better to own up to how things really are than to just say all bad news is propaganda.
Kinetica-1 launch vehicle is back, after suffering launch failure in the previous year. This is the 31st launch of 2025 and the 7th of this series.
Taijing-3-04 (泰景三号04), Taijing-4-02A (泰景四号02A), Xingrui-11 (星睿十一号), Xingjiyuan-1 (星迹源一号), Lifang108-001 (立方108-001), and Xiguang-1-02 (西光壹号02) were the satellites on board. Remote sensing, optical, technology demonstrations are what the satellites consist of. We do not currently know what the specifications of the Xingjiyuan-1 and Lifang108-001 are at this time as far as I know.
Images from the launch:
31st rocket launch of 2025
Launch time: 12:05 21st May (Beijing Time)
Launch site: Jiuquan, Gansu
Rocket: Kinetica 1-Y7
Payload: Six satellites (3 remote-sensing satellites, 1 radar satellite, 1 mini weather satellite, and 1 experimental satellite)
Mission: Gather data/images for urban construction planning, environmental monitoring, weather forecast and other civilian purposes
Launch video:
Report:
Brief summary of May until now: [7 in total, all success]
Launch time: 12:05 21st May (Beijing Time)
Launch site: Jiuquan, Gansu
Rocket: Kinetica 1-Y7
Payload: Six satellites (3 remote-sensing satellites, 1 radar satellite, 1 mini weather satellite, and 1 experimental satellite)
Mission: Gather data/images for urban construction planning, environmental monitoring, weather forecast and other civilian purposes
Launch video:
Report:
Brief summary of May until now: [7 in total, all success]
| Date | No. of satellites | Category | Name | Application |
| 11 | Unknown | military | Yaogan-40 group02 | Comms experiment, likely ELINT |
| 13 | 1 | military | TJS-19 | Comms experiment |
| 14 | 12 | civilian | Space Computing Constellation | AI-powered image/data analysis |
| 17 | 6 | civilian | Tianyi 29,34,35,42,45,46 | Environmental sensing, with SAR & comms, etc. |
| 19 | 4 | civilian | Tianqi 34~37 | LEO comms |
| 20 | 1 | civilian | ChinaSat-3B | Transmission of speech, data, and broadcast television |
| 21 | 6 | civilian | Taijing-3-04, Taijing-4-02A , Xingrui-11, Xingjiyuan-1, Lifang108-001, Xiguang-1-02 | Urban construction planning, environmental monitoring, weather forecast, etc. |
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