China's Space Program News Thread

[by78]

The Orient (东方) Spaceport located in Yantai, Shandong province is currently under construction. Once finished, it will be home to a full-cycle solid-rocket production base as well as sea launch facilities. The planned annual production capacity is 20 CZ-11 rockets.

 

[voyager1]

The planned annual production capacity is 20 CZ-11 rockets.

You mean annual Launch capacity?

 

[by78]

The International Astronomical Union has approved China's proposal to name eight lunar surface features near the landing site of the Chang'E-5 rover.

The names are:
- Tianchuan base (Statio Tianchuan), which means ships sailing in the Milky Way.
- Mons Hua (Mons Hua), named after China's Xiyue Huashan.
- Mons Heng (Mons Heng), named after China's Nanyue Heng Mountain.
- Pei Xiu, a geographer from the Western Jin Dynasty.
- Shen Kuo, an astronomer and mathematician during the Song Dynasty.
- Liu Hui, a mathematician of Cao-Wei of the famous Three Kingdoms Period.
- Song Yingxing, a scientist of the Ming Dynasty
- Xu Guangqi, an agronomist, astronomer and mathematician of the Ming Dynasty.

 

[by78]

A beautiful long-exposure shot of Tianhe module flying over the night sky.

 

[by78]

You mean annual Launch capacity?

No, annual production capacity. The spaceport has its own rocket factory attached to it.

 

[iantsai]

tianzhou-2 cargo ship will be launched at wenchang space center tonight at 20:55 gmt+8, about several minutes by now.

live broadcast at:

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[iantsai]

some screenshots of the live broadcast.

 

[broadsword]

deleted

 

[Helius]

A proposed nuclear-powered Neptune orbiting probe. The planet Neptune remains largely unexplored. Previous probes only performed a cursory flyby, without orbiting the planet for sustained observation. The Chinese proposal calls for a long-term orbital observation probe for Neptune. The probe is to feature a high-powered nuclear reactor in the 10-kilowatt class, coupled with electric propulsion – instead of using conventional chemical propulsion – in order to save weight and achieve the necessary deceleration for insertion into Neptune's orbit. The proposed design will be able to fit onto a LM-5 rocket. The Chinese proposal also envisions using the Earth's and Jupiter's gravity to slingshot the probe to achieve a higher speed, effectively shortening the trip time. The probe has a design life of 15 years. In order to overcome the communication challenges posed by Neptunes large distance to Earth, Ka-band is proposed, to be supplemented by larger antenna apertures and new data encoding techniques to achieve timely communication with home base and sufficient bandwidth for transmitting scientific data.

*Snip*

Might as well design one for Uranus, for some front and back action (no pun intend.... ah who am I kidding! )

But really, like Neptune, Uranus is also unexplored, and it's the closer planet which should make exploration easier by comparison.

 

[Temstar]

Spacecraft has separated from the upper stage, just waiting for the big red screen now.