Chinese Space Program

China Space Plane: New Image Shows Delta-wing Design

www.leonarddavid.com www.leonarddavid.com

Some new pictures (taken in august by Felix Schöfbänker) of the Chinese Reusable Spaceplane, which came back to earth on September 6.
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In other news, 3 successful chinese constellation launches within a little bit more than 24h on the 19th-20th september:

-CZ-3B/E from Xichang with YZ-1 upper stage On the 19th launching the last 2 BeiDou Gen 3 (Chinese GNSS constellation) satellites to MEO
-CZ-2D from Taiyuan on the 20th launching 6 Jillin-1 Kianfu Gen 2 (Wide-band multispectral earth imagery satellites of the Jillin commercial EO constellation) satellites to SSO
-Kuaizhou 1A from Xichang on the 20th launching 4 Tianqi (commercial Internet of Things constellation) satellites to LEO
 
10 days after Landspace, one of their competitor, Deep Blue Aerospace, attempted their own ~5km VTVL launch & recovery using their demonstrator.
Sadly it did not quite work out, while most of the flight went according to plan, up to a controlled hover with a 0.5m accuracy above the landing pad, an engine throttling failure caused it to then drop and do a hard landing. They say that they learnt a lot, we got some great drone shots, and they said they have a backup and are ready to try it again in November:

mp.weixin.qq.com

关于深蓝航天星云一号首次高空回收飞行试验的情况说明

mp.weixin.qq.com mp.weixin.qq.com


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Drone views:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1837847137176244457
View: https://x.com/starmil_admin/status/1837847137176244457

https://twitter.com/x/status/1837855770823561257
View: https://x.com/AJ_FI/status/1837855770823561257

Ground video of the flight: https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:5081504070434878
 
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The results from the first study of the samples returned from the Chang'e-6 mission have been published:


The first study of the samples collected by the Chang’e-6 lunar mission (嫦娥六号) from the Apollo crater, located in the South Pole-Aitkin impact basin, on the far side of the Moon, was published on 16 September 2024 in the journal National Science Review.
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Credit:
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Nature of the lunar farside samples returned by the Chang’e-6 mission
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Chunlai Li, Hao Hu, Meng-Fei Yang, Jianjun Liu, Qin Zhou, Xin Ren, Bin Liu, Dawei Liu, Xingguo Zeng, Wei Zuo, Guangliang Zhang, Hongbo Zhang, Saihong Yang, Qiong Wang, Xiangjin Deng, Xingye Gao, Yan Su, Weibin Wen, Ziyuan Ouyang
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National Science Review, DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwae328
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China Central Television (CCTV)
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Gwalker18 said:
Krechet 2.0
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I'm not that well-versed on space suit designs, but didn't the Chinese design their suits based on 20 something Kretchets Orlans purchased from Russia in the 90s? During one of their first space walk attempts, they even made one of two taikonauts on board wear the Kretchet and the other wear the domestic design to see which one performs better or if the domestic one is up to the task.

This should be it:

chinaevasm1.jpg
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1844917683952980021
View: https://x.com/raz_liu/status/1844917683952980021

https://www.sc.gov.cn/10462/14721/2024/10/11/dff95422955f484db33e74b45b2ff4b7.shtml
https://www.163.com/dy/article/JE3ME75Q0553TKKM.html

It seems that a new (commercial) launch pad is under construction near Xichang space center.
A new company called "Sichuan Development International Commercial Spaceport Co., Ltd." was recently unveiled in Xichang, stating that they want to build a commercial launch facility in Liangshan Prefecture (where Xichang SLC is) of Sichuan. The company has a registered capital of 1 billion yuan (~$140M) and is funded by various Sichuan state owned companies and Sichuan municipalities and provincial government.

In term of stated goals and funding amount, it is quite similar to HICAL, the company which is making and operating the commercial launch pads of Wenchang.
Earlier this week Dong Weimin, one of the main communist party member in Sichuan, was reported to have inspected the construction site, suggesting it may have already started. The launch facility is named "Western Spaceport"

----
-There had been rumours for several years that Xichang would have a new launch pad for next-generation launchers, but so far the only new launchers had been small, solid quick reaction launchers, this seems to finally be what had been long rumoured, and the funding is not negligible.
-The geography of southern china likely makes downrange recovery logistically impossible. So RLVs will likely be restricted to launch site landing, or they'll have to be expended, either way I don't think rockets will stop dropping on local towns anytime soon...
 
TheKutKu said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1844917683952980021
View: https://x.com/raz_liu/status/1844917683952980021

https://www.sc.gov.cn/10462/14721/2024/10/11/dff95422955f484db33e74b45b2ff4b7.shtml
https://www.163.com/dy/article/JE3ME75Q0553TKKM.html

It seems that a new (commercial) launch pad is under construction near Xichang space center.
A new company called "Sichuan Development International Commercial Spaceport Co., Ltd." was recently unveiled in Xichang, stating that they want to build a commercial launch facility in Liangshan Prefecture (where Xichang SLC is) of Sichuan. The company has a registered capital of 1 billion yuan (~$140M) and is funded by various Sichuan state owned companies and Sichuan municipalities and provincial government.

In term of stated goals and funding amount, it is quite similar to HICAL, the company which is making and operating the commercial launch pads of Wenchang.
Earlier this week Dong Weimin, one of the main communist party member in Sichuan, was reported to have inspected the construction site, suggesting it may have already started. The launch facility is named "Western Spaceport"

----
-There had been rumours for several years that Xichang would have a new launch pad for next-generation launchers, but so far the only new launchers had been small, solid quick reaction launchers, this seems to finally be what had been long rumoured, and the funding is not negligible.
-The geography of southern china likely makes downrange recovery logistically impossible. So RLVs will likely be restricted to launch site landing, or they'll have to be expended, either way I don't think rockets will stop dropping on local towns anytime soon...
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If it is commercial launch pad I assume it gonna be Kerolox or Methalox, since most of next gen launcher are not hypergolic.

Still not great… but Kerosene or Methane is a lot better than hypergolic if debris are real concern.
 
Flyaway said:
What with Starlink, Amazon‘s Project Kuiper satellites and now these Chinese ones. You’re probably talking of the possibility of up to an additional 50,000 satellites in orbit by the time these constellations are finished.
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Honestly even with all of these projects you've mentioned, the numbers should be way higher than your estimate (never mind any other future projects). From my memory, the current Chinese ones alone amount up to some 18-20 thousand satellites.
 
Flyaway said:
What with Starlink, Amazon‘s Project Kuiper satellites and now these Chinese ones. You’re probably talking of the possibility of up to an additional 50,000 satellites in orbit by the time these constellations are finished.
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Yeah... I'm counting over 70,000 additional satellites across the major projects...
Talking about megaconstellation, there was another Qianfan launch today
https://twitter.com/x/status/1846208892738719874
View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1846208892738719874

The launch was easily visible across a large part of china.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1846204091284050023
View: https://x.com/mickeywzx/status/1846204091284050023/photo/1

Let's hope the upper stage doesn't blow up like the last times.

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This morning, major Chinese organizations CAS, CNSA and CMSA jointly announced, in broad outlines, a "10-year plan" for space exploration.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EDIDxWQSwz2TeSlE0CxAbg

This plans describes several missions that we already know of, but there's apparently a new one:

In this plan it is written that they aim for a "Venus atmospheric sample return" in 2028-2035, in the plan, it is at the same level as manned lunar exploration or Jovian exploration (Tianwen 4). No more details.
No idea if it will be a "flyby" sampling of the thermosphere at orbital speed, or if it will be a sampling of the "deep" atmosphere requiring a launcher for the return.
Given the deadline I am thinking more of the former.

There had already been some proposals for a Chinese venus mission, including one as a "twin" to Tianwen 4, but I had never heard of a chinese venus sample return before.
 
Brief test firing of one of the most unique Chinese engine in develop by private sector. The company Space Circling label Qiaolong-1 engine as Staged Combustion Tapoff cycle
https://twitter.com/x/status/1847261780483186895
Space circling completed second hot fire test the of Qiaolong-1.
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Engine diagram
interesting-engine-from-china-qiaolong-1-staged-combustion-v0-i14iti3o4qlc1.jpg

This engine circumvent the need to have gas generator by having two combustion chamber in line with one another. The top combustion chamber is low temp fuel rich, the gas from it is tap-off to power the turbo pump. Since it is low temp and fuel rich there is no need to be concern with turbo pump needing to handle high temperature gas that is of concern to other tap-off cycle engine.


Exhaust look a bit chaotic I wonder if they have decent amount of work left
 
WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - NASA and Chinese officials are engaged in talks to let American scientists analyze rocks retrieved by China from the moon's far side, according to the head of the U.S. space agency, as Washington pursues improved communication with Beijing on issues involving space.
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…

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said officials with his agency have been discussing with their Chinese counterparts the terms of Beijing's loan agreement for the moon rocks after he assured American lawmakers "a month or two ago" that the talks would not pose national security concerns.
"We are now going through further clarification" with China, Nelson told Reuters at the International Astronautical Congress, a gathering of the world's space agencies, in Milan.
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Now where have I seen that design before!!!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1849065139997376825
View: https://twitter.com/cnspaceflight/status/1849065139997376825


DEEP-BLUE is accepting reservations (only 2 tickets) for their suborbital space travel planned for 2027! The ship:
3.5m wide & 4m tall
6 seats & 6 windows
1200kg payload capacity & 7.9t liftoff mass
Travel up to 100~150km with ~600s 0-G experience
Reuse for 50 times
One more VTVL test of Nebula-1 rocket is planned for this November and orbital launch and recovery will be attempted next year with more test flights following. Launch with uncrewed ship is planned for 2026. Crewed flight is targeted for 2027 after tens of test flights of the uncrewed
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RO5ciCjwh26S…
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Here’s a price (¥1.5 million = $211,000):

https://twitter.com/x/status/1849354509476061666
View: https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1849354509476061666


Deep Blue Aerospace to launch suborbital travel in 2027 for ¥1.5 million per ticket. Extensive tests ensure safety and reliability. Spaceship measures 4m high, 3.5m diameter, 7.5t weight. #SpaceTravel Source:m.weibo.cn/status/OCUb7tP…
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I know people mentioned CAS Space’s Kinetica-2 before in this thread, but I don’t think it had been said yet. Despite having that Falcon-Heavy look it is probably one of the most unique Chinese reusable (beside Space Epoch propulsive ocean splash down recovery, actually anyone have update about them? They were suppose to do suborbital hop right around this time) rocket.


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Both Kinetica-2 (tri core) and Kinetica-2H (Penta core) first stage all land together as one block. I assume there is not a single core variant since it would be very difficult since each core only have 3 engine which don’t lend it self too well to propulsive landing. The rocket seems to at least need 3 core (and thus 9 engine) to pull off landing.

I jokingly wonder if CAS Space just got tooling for 3.35m diameter rocket body that seems to not be needed in newer or upcoming rocket and thus come up with these design that still utilize that diameter.
 
Heavier rocket planned by Deep Blue Aerospace for 2026, the Nebula-2.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1849764394860978557
New specs of Nebula-2. 5M diameter. 11 LT-RS engines at first stage. Lift-off thrust reaching 1460t. Via https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FqKo2ZOoJw3HHfXOTe_79Q
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5 meter diameter
Powered by 11 130 tons thrust kerolox gas generator cycle engine
>25 tons to LEO

Engine gas generator being test fired earlier today
https://twitter.com/x/status/1849766155092889928


I think if this is complete it will be the most powerful gas generator cycle engine China ever built when it is complete.

This might also be the most capable planned single core reusable Chinese rocket right now.
 

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