Air & Cosmos also mentions talks between Airbus and Landspace (likely sat-focused sister compant-subsidiary Hongqing) for the same integration into HBCplus
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
A Kuaizhou-1A rocket has launched two maritime navigational assistance satellites into orbit, called VDES-A and VDES-B, both are Very High Frequency (VHF) Data Exchange System (VDES) capabilities.
This will likely be a constellation if reports are to be believed, with these two serving as testers for that. Another indication that this is true is SSST is helping with the manufacturing and launch.
A bird's eye view of the landing site. Posted by Millenium Emperor on Weibo.
In addition, here are a couple newly-released footages of the ZQ-3 conducting stage separation, booster reentry, grid fins deployment, reentry engine ignition and landing engine ignition (and right up till before the abnormal burn and explosion of the booster) during its 1st launch and recovery attempt.
Needless to say (again) - They got pretty damn close.
Video on Weibo:
Needless to say (again) - They got pretty damn close.
Video on Weibo:
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14th batch of GW/Satnet just got launched today. Still feels like the entire process is too slow, because SpaceSail itself hasn't moved faster. At least with GW, my impression is that the sats in this first phase are larger and more capable.
With the 14th launch of Guowang today, China has officially hit 80 launches in 2025, a new record for them, and as I said prior, they’re only the third nation to achieve this mark, ever. Russia/Soviets, the U.S., and now China.
Edit: Here is the mission patch and photos and some more information unique to the launch.
I believe they mentioned this launch used coal-based kerosene, which is much better for high-frequency launching of rockets. They’re also looking to iterate a new engine soon on this vehicle, B series, and launch once a month next year.
Edit: Here is the mission patch and photos and some more information unique to the launch.
I believe they mentioned this launch used coal-based kerosene, which is much better for high-frequency launching of rockets. They’re also looking to iterate a new engine soon on this vehicle, B series, and launch once a month next year.
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Making this as a separate post.
The Long March 12A has officially completed its static fire test at JSLC, the last step before launch. We should see launch within the next week if rumors are to be believed. This will be China’s second reusable launch attempt, after ZQ-3.
The Long March 12A has officially completed its static fire test at JSLC, the last step before launch. We should see launch within the next week if rumors are to be believed. This will be China’s second reusable launch attempt, after ZQ-3.