China's Space Program News Thread

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by78

General
Another Kuaizhou (KZ) rocket launch...

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Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
Little bit more info about the launch of Kuaizhou -1A launch. China has a robust micro satellite industry and all the necessary launcher that can be launched in moment notice. As well as other
infrastructure. An important asset in time of emergency

Kuaizhou-1A lofts two satellites for China
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August 30, 2019
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The Chinese launched two new small satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in a mission managed by the Expace company. The launch took place at 23:41UTC on Friday, using the Kuaizhou-1A (Y10) rocket.

Onboard the solid fuelled launch vehicle was the KX-09 and the Xiaoxiang 1-07 satellites.

Developed by the DFH Satellite Co., the microgravity experimental satellite KX-09 (supposedly Kuxue-09) will conduct studies in microgravity. Established in August 2001, DFH Satellite Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in system R&D, design, integration and in-orbit service of small satellites. It is subordinated to China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and wholly owned by the listed company China Spacesat Co., Ltd.

In October 2001, the State Council approved the National Development and Reform Committee’s proposition of building the National Engineering Research Center of Small Satellites and Applications, one of the world’s largest research centers of the kind, with DFH Satellite Co. as its legal entity.

About one-third of the currently in-orbit Chinese satellites were produced by DFH Satellite Co. Based on independently developed platforms CAST968, CAST2000, CAST100 and CAST100+ applicable to satellites from 10kg to 1,000 kg in mass, the company launched more than 60 satellites, among which 37 satellites launched during the past 5 years and 52 satellites still in orbit, used in the fields of ocean observation environment and disaster monitoring, remote sensing for earth observation, stereo surveying and mapping, scientific and technological experiment.


Those projects marked breakthroughs in the key technologies of formation flight agility, integrated electronics, automated testing, digital general assembly, etc.

Xiaoxiang 1-07 (TY 1-07) is a small satellite developed by SpaceTY, possibly a CubeSat-2U. As one of the first commercial aerospace companies in China, “Spacety” specializes in developing commercial micro/nanosatellites. The company aims to provide short-cycle, low-cost and one-stop services to scientists, research institutes, and commercial companies, for science experiments and technology demonstrations.

The launch was originally scheduled to take place on November 25, 2018, but in the middle of the month was delayed by one month or the first quarter of 2019. The following months come without any notice about the mission, but at the beginning of August 2019, a notice came announcing the launch for August 29.

2018-09-29-043906.jpg

The Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle.

After this mission, CASIC announced that they will launch 8 or 9 more Kuaizhou-1A commercial launches before the end of 2019.

The launch is managed by Expace.

Expace Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp, it is specialized in R&D, manufacturing and marketing of the Kuaizhou series launch vehicle to provide cost-effective, reliable and accurate commercial launch service for customers all over the world.

First stage ignition and lift-off take place at T+0s. Maneuvering to the planned flight azimuth, the vehicle achieves Max-Q at T+44s and first stage separation takes place 1 minute and 20 seconds into the flight, followed by second stage ignition.

At 2 minutes and 42 seconds in flight, the second stage separates, followed by the two halves of the fairing, exposing its double cargo.

Here is the video
 
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pipaster

Junior Member
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Yutu-2 finds the secret of the ooze on the moon! Hopefully this will turn out to be a feather in the cap for this mission.

China’s Chang’e 4 mission is currently exploring one of the lesser-known areas of the moon — the
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, which faces away from Earth. Previously it found minerals which may have come from
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, and now it has found something even stranger: An oddly-colored “gel-like” substance of unknown origin.

The mission consists of not only the Chang’e 4 lander, but also a smaller rover called Yutu-2. It was Yutu-2 which stumbled across the unexpected blobby mystery, as reported by
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. The discovery occurred on lunar day 8, or July 25 here on Earth, and it was so intriguing to the mission scientists that they chose to suspend other exploration plans to learn more about the unknown substance. The information about the finding comes originally from a Chinese language publication called Our Space.

The substance was found in a lunar crater, and it stood out from the rest of the moon’s surface due to its color and texture. The Chinese scientists haven’t released any more information about what exactly the substance looks like, describing it only as gel-like and of an unusual color. It could be that the substance is melted glass which was deposited onto the moon’s surface by a meteorite.

The Chang’e 4 lander recently awoke from a snooze to resume its investigations of the moon for its ninth lunar day. A lunar day is equivalent to 14 days on Earth, the same as a lunar night. The rover powers down and “sleeps” through the cold lunar night, to be reactivated during the lunar day as it was last week.

Its next task will be conducting scientific tests with its neutron radiation detector and low-frequency radio detector, together with its infrared imaging spectrometer and other instruments, which will focus on observing the composition of the moon’s surface.

The mission isn’t only making use of Chinese technology, however. It also represents an international collaboration. “The Chang’e-4 mission embodies China’s hope to combine human wisdom in space exploration with four payloads developed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Saudi Arabia,” according to China’s state news agency
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.
 

Strategic Analyst

New Member
Registered Member
Little bit more info about the launch of Kuaizhou -1A launch. China has a robust micro satellite industry and all the necessary launcher that can be launched in moment notice. As well as other
infrastructure. An important asset in time of emergency

Kuaizhou-1A lofts two satellites for China
written by
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
August 30, 2019
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The Chinese launched two new small satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in a mission managed by the Expace company. The launch took place at 23:41UTC on Friday, using the Kuaizhou-1A (Y10) rocket.

Onboard the solid fuelled launch vehicle was the KX-09 and the Xiaoxiang 1-07 satellites.

Developed by the DFH Satellite Co., the microgravity experimental satellite KX-09 (supposedly Kuxue-09) will conduct studies in microgravity. Established in August 2001, DFH Satellite Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in system R&D, design, integration and in-orbit service of small satellites. It is subordinated to China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and wholly owned by the listed company China Spacesat Co., Ltd.

In October 2001, the State Council approved the National Development and Reform Committee’s proposition of building the National Engineering Research Center of Small Satellites and Applications, one of the world’s largest research centers of the kind, with DFH Satellite Co. as its legal entity.

About one-third of the currently in-orbit Chinese satellites were produced by DFH Satellite Co. Based on independently developed platforms CAST968, CAST2000, CAST100 and CAST100+ applicable to satellites from 10kg to 1,000 kg in mass, the company launched more than 60 satellites, among which 37 satellites launched during the past 5 years and 52 satellites still in orbit, used in the fields of ocean observation environment and disaster monitoring, remote sensing for earth observation, stereo surveying and mapping, scientific and technological experiment.


Those projects marked breakthroughs in the key technologies of formation flight agility, integrated electronics, automated testing, digital general assembly, etc.

Xiaoxiang 1-07 (TY 1-07) is a small satellite developed by SpaceTY, possibly a CubeSat-2U. As one of the first commercial aerospace companies in China, “Spacety” specializes in developing commercial micro/nanosatellites. The company aims to provide short-cycle, low-cost and one-stop services to scientists, research institutes, and commercial companies, for science experiments and technology demonstrations.

The launch was originally scheduled to take place on November 25, 2018, but in the middle of the month was delayed by one month or the first quarter of 2019. The following months come without any notice about the mission, but at the beginning of August 2019, a notice came announcing the launch for August 29.

2018-09-29-043906.jpg

The Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle.

After this mission, CASIC announced that they will launch 8 or 9 more Kuaizhou-1A commercial launches before the end of 2019.

The launch is managed by Expace.

Expace Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp, it is specialized in R&D, manufacturing and marketing of the Kuaizhou series launch vehicle to provide cost-effective, reliable and accurate commercial launch service for customers all over the world.

First stage ignition and lift-off take place at T+0s. Maneuvering to the planned flight azimuth, the vehicle achieves Max-Q at T+44s and first stage separation takes place 1 minute and 20 seconds into the flight, followed by second stage ignition.

At 2 minutes and 42 seconds in flight, the second stage separates, followed by the two halves of the fairing, exposing its double cargo.

Here is the video
Thank you for this very informative post Hendrik_2000

Very interesting. Rapid mobile launch of satellites. Key to maintaining a communication network.
 

anzha

Senior Member
Registered Member
The first module for China’s planned space station has passed a final review, but the project continues to suffer launch vehicle-related delays.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA)
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Sept. 6 that the 20-metric-ton ‘Tianhe’ module design and prototype had passed final reviews Sept. 2. The flight model would be manufactured in the near future.

Tianhe (‘Harmony of the Heavens’) is the core module for the Chinese Space Station (CSS) and will control the station’s orbit and attitude and function as the main astronaut quarters.

When Tianhe will launch is still unknown. According to previous official statements the first of three modules for the space station was to be launched in 2020, with the complex to be completed by ‘around 2022’.

The ‘around 2022’ time frame had not changed despite ongoing delays in readying the launch vehicle required for the project, suggesting a more compressed schedule.

The timeline for completion has however now shifted to ‘2022-2024’, according to Qi Faren, chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft which has facilitated China’s human spaceflight missions.

Qi
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with the new timeline at a satellite navigation and location services conference in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, Sept. 10.

Qi added that the first flight of the CSS project would be the test launch of the Long March 5B, now expected in the first half of 2020. If successful, that launch would clear the way for launch of the Tianhe module.

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anzha

Senior Member
Registered Member
China launched a new remote sensing satellite using a Long March 4B launch vehicle from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Thursday. Launch of the Ziyuan-2D (Ziyuan-2 04) satellite took place around 4:30 UTC from the LC9 Launch Complex.

The launch returns the Long March 4 to flight after an issue with “structural resonance” between the third stage and the payload on a Long March 4C led to the loss of the Yaogan Weixing-33 mission on May 22.

Onboard were also the BNU-1 / Jingshi-1 satellite and the small Naxing-3 satellite.

The Ziyuan-2 (ZY-2) satellites are remote sensing vehicles capable of obtaining images and other data that can be used for planning, monitoring, crop yield monitoring and monitoring of natural disaster areas, as well as conducting field experiments in space sciences.

Information from various sources in China indicates that cameras aboard the Ziyuan-2 have a higher resolution than cameras used on the Ziyuan-1 / CBERS satellite launched in 1999. Ziyuan-2 vehicles are one of the largest satellites developed by China and its stabilization technology on its three space axes represented one of the biggest advances in Chinese space technology.

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supercat

Major
Pocket-sized Chinese thruster has big future
Ion liquid electric device has undergone in-orbit tests on a small, experimental satellite launched earlier this year

Chinese space designers have devised a pocket-size device they say can extend small satellites’ life spans and help prevent them from becoming hazardous space debris, China Daily reported.

The ion liquid electric thruster was developed by the 206th Institute under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. and has undergone in-orbit tests on a small, experimental Chinese satellite launched earlier this year.

Compared with conventional rocket engines that generate propulsion using chemical propellants, these new ion thrusters use liquid metals — usually cesium, indium or mercury — as propellants, allowing spacecraft to carry much less fuel than before, the report said.

The 300-gram ion thruster is a state-of-the-art propulsion system for small satellites, which, in contrast to traditional large satellites, have no bulky chemically powered engines, said Gao Hui, the equipment’s chief designer at the Beijing institute.

“Without large fuel tanks, pumps, valves and toxic propellants mounted on conventional engines, the new devices are totally portable and capable of executing high-precision orbital maneuvers for small satellites in an efficient manner,” Gao said.

He explained that most small satellites now operate in low-Earth orbits in a passive state and gradually fall from their orbits because they have no propulsion instruments to maintain their altitude.

“In fact, a very slight propulsive force will be enough to alter a small satellite’s altitude or to correct any possible orbital deviations, thus prolonging its service life,” the designer said.

If a high-orbiting satellite completes its service life and remains in orbit, it becomes space debris and poses a potential hazard to other spacecraft.

Without propulsion systems, these satellites potentially float in space forever, adding to existing space clutter.

“If they are equipped with our thrusters, they will be able to be propelled to leave their orbits and travel outside of all satellite-deployable orbits, eliminating the possibility of turning into dangerous space junk,” Gao said, adding that this solution can save satellite businesses around the world a lot of money on monitoring and tracking space debris and also ease concerns over the potential for catastrophic collisions.

Xu Nuo, head of applied physics technology at the institute, said that as the market for commercial satellites is quickly expanding in China, demand for the new compact ion thrusters is on the rise.

Xu said that several domestic institutes have been conducting research and development into these thrusters, and her institute is the first to produce and test such devices in flight.

Internationally, only the United States has flight-tested the technology. The institute will continue improving the technology before promoting it to the satellite market, she added.

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