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Brigadier
Each GW sat launched by CZ-8A weights
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
This is vastly more complex aerospace technology that won't fly (let alone operationalized) for another decade+. FYI they have several novel approaches, especially with the precooled air turbo rocket, which you can find in the earlier Space Program thread.
They'll have VTVL in 2026 and they'll iterate on the design after that. What we should really pay attention going forward is turnaround time and mass to orbit. Ultimately the most important thing here is execution and they need to build organizations that efficiently and effectively use resources.
Falcons are achieving extremely high cadence because it requires minimal refurbishment beyond legs and avionics checkouts. They're not performing some black magic but simply a highly competent team working with a really robust design.
How come they are launching only 9 satellites in each batch so far? Is it apayload capacity issue, satellite capacity manufacturing issue or just a mission objective ?
I think spacesail launches far more on each batch, though they had more issues with their earlier sats performance.
Spacex rise has been shocking. I remember many people were making fun of them everywhere, saying how foolish, useless and how their ambition’s were unfeasible . Yet here we are today. Some are still saying the same thing about starlink , how it’s a waste of resources and unfeasible as well. We have to wait and see in a few years once it’s in operational how it will change the space industry as well. Crazy to see them launching over 170 times a year for a single company. If you told me this even 3 years ago, I would have said it’s impossible . I have learned not to underestimate them anymore .
Guowang sats are significantly heavier than starlink or spacesail sats. They are not just for internet coverage, and appear to have multiple weight classes and types of platform launching under the same name and network. Not good practice to try to compare them.
I see. Do you have any idea if most of the satellites will be of this weight class or the majority will follow the spacesail/starlink model of dozens of lighter satellites in one batch ?
Yeah seems the government is finally taking the fact that the country is seriously lacking behind the US in the reusable rocket race seriously. Better late than never . Good initiative . I hope Landspace will get even more support from the government, since i believe they have the most probability of suceeding in launching a reusable rocket in china. The others are still way behind.
A clearer signal for funding for reusable rocket companies is of course beneficial to the sector, but I also think you are underestimating the number of entities (both state and commercial) that are pursuing reusable rockets and likely to succeed in doing so in the next year (and even more so if extends it out to two years).
Of course, among the commercial entities Landspace currently leads by a margin and they have a viable vision for longer term scaling through to 2030 and beyond, but by virtue of how many players there are, how advanced their projects are, and the demand for throw weight, there's a fairly good chance that by 2030 there could be a dozen unique entities regularly launching reusable rockets of medium lift class or greater, with each entity having 1-2 types of reusable rockets themselves.