China's Space Program Thread II

[tphuang]

A CZ-3 rocket sent the Zhongxin-26 communication satellite to orbit on Feb 23. This satellite, a first of China to have more than 100Gbps of bandwidth, will be serving China and surrounding areas.

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据“中国航天科技集团”公众号消息，2月23日19时49分，中国首颗超百Gbps容量的高通量卫星——中星26号卫星搭乘长征三号乙运载火箭从西昌卫星发射中心起飞。随后，卫星进入预定轨道，发射任务取得圆满成功。

中星26号卫星由中国航天科技集团有限公司所属中国卫通负责采购和在轨运行管理，是中国首颗超百Gbps容量的高通量卫星，也是新一代满足卫星互联网及通信传输要求的高通量宽带通信卫星。

中星26号卫星由航天科技集团五院负责研制，采用自主研发的东方红四号增强型卫星平台，预计定点于东经125度，配置Ka频段载荷，主要覆盖中国全境及周边区域。

执行本次任务的长三乙火箭由航天科技集团一院抓总研制，采用长三甲系列火箭统一构型设计思路，采用4000F整流罩。该状态火箭全长56.326米，全箭起飞质量约456吨。

The more important part is this.

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中星26号等Ka高通量卫星容量超过100Gbps，覆盖中国及周边海域、中东、东南亚及北太平洋区域。

后续规划的卫星容量约300Gbps，可覆盖“一带一路”沿线。

So Chinasat-26 serves areas surrounding China, MiddleEast, ASEAN & North Pacific. So I'd imagine this includes Central Asia also. Basically the most immediate BRI countries.

Follow on satellites will have 300Gbps and cover BRI routes. That's quite significant. Their goal is to serve the world and provide this service to the world.

for all the aviation fans out there, a major competitor to this is Viasat, which launched Viasat-2 in 2017 which covers all the routes your typical US airlines would fly and give them high speed internet access

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properties of Viasat-2. Note it has 2.6x the capacity of Chinasat-26 and was launched more than 5 years ago.

• Speed: Up to 100 Mbps
• Capacity: 260 Gbps
• Weight of satellite: 6,400kg or 7.4 tons
• Service launch date: February 2018

Viasat-3 is suppose to launch this year.

Edit: took a look at it a little more. Looks like Viasat and ChinaSat are actually partners for IFC. For example, Sichuan Airlines recently just added Viasat IFC that connects to ChinaSat.

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I guess their main competitor here is Gogo and Intelsat which uses the older Ku band satellite technology.

 

[by78]

The re-usable 80-ton YF-209 engine has successfully completed a long-duration (200-second) test run.

 

[by78]

Models of China's next-generation manned spacecraft and lunar lander on display at the National Museum of China.

 

[by78]

High-resolution images of the ChinaSat-26 (Zhongxing-26) launch by a LM-3B rocket. This was the 463rd mission of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

 

[by78]

Second launch of the day, this time a LM-2C successfully put in orbit the Horus-1 (荷鲁斯1号) remote sensing satellite. This mission marks the 464th flight of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

 

[escobar]

Second launch of the day, this time a LM-2C successfully put in orbit the Horus-1 (荷鲁斯1号) remote sensing satellite. This mission marks the 464th flight of the Long March series of launch vehicles.

For Egypt

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[escobar]

the GW satellite constellation was likely to be deployed quickly, “before the completion of Starlink”. This would “ensure that our country has a place in low orbit and prevent the Starlink constellation from excessively pre-empting low-orbit resources”

The Chinese satellites could be equipped with an anti-Starlink payload to carry out various missions. The Chinese satellites could also be placed in “orbits where the Starlink constellation has not yet reached”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1629126319282724867

 

[by78]

A placard on the Long March 10 from an ongoing exhibit at the National Museum of China. Variants of Long March 10 without strap-on boosters will be developed –– all featuring a re-usable first stage –– to be used to transport Taikonauts and as cargo to the Chinese space station. They will be approximately 67m in length, with a 748 ton take-off weight, a thrust of 873 tons, and a LEO capacity of ≥14 tons.

 

[by78]

(Continued from above...)

A placard on China's manned exploration program. It states that China intends to land taikonauts on Mars by mid-21st century.

 

[by78]

Information on the future expansion of the Chinese space station. The placard (1st image) states that a new multi-functional module will be added to the CSS. The last two images are illustrations of the new module.