Locals uploaded smoke trail video as early as 10th.
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
China has launched 9 more GuoWang satellites on the Long March 8A from the 1st Commercial Pad, which undertakes two major events. First, this is the launch that will allow GuoWang to pass up the Qianfan constellation, and this is the 600th flight of the Long March Series! This is also the 63rd launch of the year.
The pace at which Long March rockets are launched has increasing by far since they first debuted 55 years ago. The first launch occurred on the 24th of April, 1970. The 100th occurred 37 years and 1 month later. The 200th would come seven years and six months after. The 300th would come four years and three months after. The 400th would launch two years and nine months later. The 500th took only two years to reach, and the 600th, this launch above, took one year and ten months. I can certainly see 100 launches a year soon enough.
(Beyound Earth Orbit lauches not included)
It's tempting to talk about sheer lauch numbers and to award a well deserved kudos to China's space project, how far it's come along. The above graphic displays the USSR's numbers advantage from late 60's to mid 90's BUT how that didn't provide them with the qualitative strategic edge vis a vis United States.
My Point: China's focus here should be "quality over quantity" - and not chasing numerical milestones.
I didn't say anything related to quality, I'm saying if they can improve their turnaround times on launch processes, as there are dozens of articles on them doing, they can improve launch times. The argument you're bringing up is the same exact one I bring up when people want to say "SpaceX is single-handedly outdoing China" because while it is true that they launch more per year, they are not engineering the lunar return modules, telescopes, deep space relay satellites, space stations, gravitational wave satellites, mars orbiters, etc. so it is about what you launch, not just how much you launch.
Also no one is talking about chasing numerical milestones, I don't understand how that is what you got from my post. My post was about how amazing it is that they've been able to narrow down the launch cadence over the decades. I'd like to see them hit 100 high quality launches in a year. I am not saying they should chase numerical milestones.
Nuances of behind the screen communication.There is this saying associated with Joseph Stalin: "quantity has a quality all its own"...and where this might be true with certain domains, it wasn't accurate for the soviet space program. I'd just hate to see that occur again.
I rest my case. No pun intended.
Fair enough, it just sounded a lot different the first time I read it.
There is this saying associated with Joseph Stalin: "quantity has a quality all its own"...and where this might be true with certain domains, it wasn't accurate for the soviet space program. I'd just hate to see that occur again.
I rest my case. No pun intended.
I mean there are several differences I will say, China is more competent, but yes I generally agree.
Me as well, lol.
I've read rumors of 2 mid-course intercept test last week, so maybe it's possible they're two different launches?
Payload should be look at more as well. Since you can launch a few tiny satellites 40times on the most small basic rocket and claim to be ahead as well, meanwhile your comoetitor can launch just 4 launches which dwsrfs all the satellite launches you carried out. So yeah payload matters as well.
However china and the US are not competing in the same market due to US sanctions, China has her own national objective to pursue so they dont really compete directly on the world market. Plus China space industry has its own set of goals which they are working towards different from the US and its private company spaceX
by78
General
Nayuta is carrying out detailed design of its reusable Chaser-R launch vehicle, which is expected to enter prototyping stage next year. The vehicle uses aerodynamic deceleration and horizontal landing for recovery.
Nayuta has begun production of a prototype of its Chaser-R reusable launch vehicle, aiming to carry out a test flight at the end of 2026.
