China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
Qianfan satellites are now launching on CZ-8A; it's said CZ-8 production has stopped, and only a small number of CZ-8 are left to launch (the no-booster variant of CZ-8 will likely not fly more than once).
Launch is currently planned for 7/2 around 14:00 UTC
Launch is currently planned for 7/2 around 14:00 UTC
The Cz-8 really had a short life then, is the LM-12 going to replace it (maybe the lm-7 too)?
It's possible that the CZ-8 is becoming less competitive in its segment (4-5 tonnes to 500-700 km SSO) now that CZ-12A (methatne, to be reusable) and ZQ-2E (methane, non-reusable) are coming on line; but you can also look at the base CZ-8 as a stepping stone to the more capable CZ-8A which will have continued viability, along with all the future reusable LVs, for the various megaconstellation launches since LV availability is one of the current bottlenecks for China's constellation ambitions. On the other hand the CZ-7 and CZ-7A likely will continue to fly for some time since they were optimized for Tianzhou launches to the CSS and for GTO missions respectively.
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Is that a screenshot of an interactive graphic where I can see the numbers for each type?
90 is the rocket launch number, and 315 is number of individual objects into orbit? So the 10 unsuccessful ones were all from a single failed rocket launch?