China's Space Program News Thread

[taxiya]

Why it's called the China's first marine satellite launch platform? There already were space launches from an ocean mobile platform in the Yellow Sea (in 2019 and 2020).

Those two platforms in 2019 and 2020 are modified cargo ships. This one is the first purposefully built platform.

 

[anzha]

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[SAC]

Significant year for China:

Most successful launches (and counting):

Year China based successful U.S. based successful

2021​	39​	36​
2020​	35​	34​
2019​	32​	21​
2018​	38​	31​
2017​	17​	28​
2016​	21​	22​
2015​	19​	18​
2014​	16​	22​
2013​	14​	19​
2012​	19​	13​
2011​	18​	17​
2010​	15​	15​

 

[weig2000]

Significant year for China:

Most successful launches (and counting):

Year China based successful U.S. based successful

2021​	39​	36​
2020​	35​	34​
2019​	32​	21​
2018​	38​	31​
2017​	17​	28​
2016​	21​	22​
2015​	19​	18​
2014​	16​	22​
2013​	14​	19​
2012​	19​	13​
2011​	18​	17​
2010​	15​	15​

Interesting. There was a huge jump in Chinese launches in 2018, roughly doubling those of the previous years and having never looked back since. It's been pretty obvious that in the last couple of years, Chinese space exploration activities have taken a quantum leap both in quantity and quality. In fact, the future roadmap, which has been recently approved by the government, looks even more hectic and ambitious.

 

[by78]

A different selfie taken by the Mars rover.

 

[Quickie]

Significant year for China:

Most successful launches (and counting):

Year China based successful U.S. based successful

2021​	39​	36​
2020​	35​	34​
2019​	32​	21​
2018​	38​	31​
2017​	17​	28​
2016​	21​	22​
2015​	19​	18​
2014​	16​	22​
2013​	14​	19​
2012​	19​	13​
2011​	18​	17​
2010​	15​	15​

Interesting. There was a huge jump in Chinese launches in 2018, roughly doubling those of the previous years and having never looked back since. It's been pretty obvious that in the last couple of years, Chinese space exploration activities have taken a quantum leap both in quantity and quality. In fact, the future roadmap, which has been recently approved by the government, looks even more hectic and ambitious.

A big proportion of the Falcon 9 launches this year (about 13 of them) were for the Starlink satellites. China's launches were for a more varied range of different types of satellites

 

[10thman]

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China's Geely builds satellites to guide autonomous vehicles​

Spacecraft will power communication and navigation network

Geely plans to use satellites to send vast quantities of information to self-driving vehicles.

SHUNSUKE TABETA, Nikkei staff writer
October 5, 2021 09:30 JST

BEIJING -- Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has started manufacturing satellites to create a high-precision navigation network that will guide self-driving cars.

Mass production has begun in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, marking an entry by China's largest privately owned automaker into a field long dominated by the military.
The satellites were independently developed by Geely group company Geespace, with manufacturing also handled by a group member.

Greely's manufacturing knowhow will be applied to build different types of satellites. Annual production is targeted at 500 units.
Geely plans to create a network of low earth orbit satellites that will send precise positioning information to self-driving cars.
China's space industry has close ties to the People's Liberation Army. Manufacturing satellites had previously been the domain of enterprises affiliated with the military.

But U.S. private-sector companies have made significant strides in the space business, especially when it comes to collaborations with the automotive industry. Against this backdrop, Geely apparently saw entering the satellite business as a must for expanding its global automobile operation.
Geely founder and Chairman Li Shufu also serves in China's National People's Congress. Li is considered close to Chinese President Xi Jinping, since Geely is headquartered in Zhejiang Province, where Xi once served as party secretary. Private-sector enterprises have lately been making investments in sectors previously off-limits, such as nuclear energy.

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China’s Geely begins production of satellites for its self-driving vehicles

By Dashveenjit Kaur | 8 October, 2021

Various types of satellites will be built for functions such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications.
The satellites will eventually form a network to provide highly precise GPS navigation data to guide autonomous vehicles.
Geely believes that entering the satellite business is a must if it wishes to expand its global presence.
For the longest time, manufacturing of satellites in China had been the domain of enterprises linked to the People’s Liberation Army. However, that is quickly changing as even China’s largest privately owned automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding’s (Geely) has just made its foray into the field long dominated by the country’s military division.

According to a post on the WeChat account of Geely Technology Group, the first pre-production satellite was rolled off the assembly line at Geely’s satellite manufacturing factory in Taizhou, Zhejiang province at the end of last month, marking the commencement of the scale production for Geely’s commercial satellites to support its future autonomous vehicles.

The aim of Geely, also the parent company of Sweden’s Volvo Cars, is to use a network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to help its future autonomous vehicle navigate with the highest level of safety with centimeter level precision.

Satellite productions by China’s Geely
In February 2021, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved Taizhou Xingkong to manufacture commercial satellites, the second one in the country to obtain such a permit.

Developed in-house by Geespace, a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, the newborn satellite was manufactured by Taizhou Xingkong Intelligent Connectivity Technology Co.,Ltd. (Taizhou Xingkong), a company also controlled by Geely Technology Group.

The Taizhou Xingkong’s plant also possesses China’s first private capital funded smart AIT (assembly, integration and testing) center for pulsating modular satellites. It is, interestingly, the country’s first factory integrating volume production capabilities of both aero devices and automobiles. It will feature an annual capacity of 500 satellites, said Geely.

Geely essentially found that entering the satellite business is a must if it wishes to expand its global presence, reports claim, as US private firms are making strides in the space business. The development of commercial aerospace business will in fact support Geely in many fields like future mobility service, intelligent manufacturing, unmanned aerial vehicle transportation, and city management.

Geely is even ambitious to use its low-orbit satellites to provide low-latency centimeter-level positioning service for such smart mobility applications as cloud-based vehicle management, autonomous driving, automatic parking, and low-altitude flights.

Geely’s CEO Xu Zhihao said the achievement is a reflection of “Geely speed” and “Geely determination. He reckons that a bright future lies ahead for commercial aerospace, with the rapid pace of change in the aerospace industry and the integration of new communication technologies in different sectors such as satellite internet, autonomous driving, and cloud computing.

It is rather apparent indeed that Geely isn’t the only one in its pursuit of satellite technology to support a fleet of cloud connected cars. In the West in fact, Tesla is also using LEO satellites for the Starlink network to provide internet access to rural areas. Additionally, even Japanese vehicle maker Honda Motor plans to make its way into the satellite launch industry.

 

[iantsai]

Between 2015.3.30-2020.6.23, China launched 25 rockets, orbiting 39 Beidou II/III GPS satellites, forming a complete Beidou constellation.

These missions, mostly between year 2018 to 2020, greatly contributed to China's rocket launching record.

 

[by78]

Daily life aboard the Chinese space station.

 

[escobar]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1455898801500303372

Low orbit SIGINT satellites to track ships and aircraft via their radio transmissions. In contrast to the earlier first generation (Yaogan 9) and second generation (Yaogan 31) constellations, it features only two satellites (like US Intruder/NOSS3)