Two noteworthy pieces of news:

The first is that the Shenzhou 19 crew (Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong) just did their first EVA, and apparently broke the record for longest spacewalk at 9hour and 6 min, the previous record (8h56min) dated from STS-102 in 2001. During the spacewalk they installed a space debris protection device, and did various inspections.

View: https://x.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1869051788978159692


The other is that on the 16th, the first operational batch (10 satellites) of the "Guowang" or "Zhongguo XingWang" (China SatNet) LEO broadband internet satellite constellation was launched by the Heavy launcher CZ-5B from Wenchang to a 1150 km polar orbit.


This is the second of the two big chinese LEO broadband internet constellation, alongside Qianfan/G60/Spacesail, unlike Qianfan, it is a central government program for national purpose, with presumably a military compatibility, it is therefore relatively unlike the commercial, international-focused and provincially-funded Qianfan, its closest analogue as a governmental dual use Civilian-military program would be the european Iris² network, although on a much larger scale.

The full constellation is supposed to have 12000 satellites, with about 6500 in Very low orbit below 500km and 6500 in 1100-1200 km orbit. These are filled as separate constellations and both need to launch at least 50% of the satellites by 2032 according to radio spectrum regulations promulgated by the International Telecommunication Union..

The satellites are built by CALT, the main satellite-making subsidiary of CASC, at a new factory in Tianjin, the current production rate is only 100 satellites a year, but another factory is being built in Wenchang with a planned production rate of 1000 satellites a year, expected to open in about a year, in the meanwhile, the production rate seems to be enough for the planned launch rate in 2025.

There is still a big question mark about technical details of the Guowang satellites, the low number of satellites launched came off as a surprise, since CZ-5B has a High leo polar orbit capability around 15-20 tons. Recent informations seem to indicate that these satellites are rather large, possibly between 1 and 2 ton heavy and not of a "flat" design like Starlink and Qianfan. If so, the launch of over 13000 of them may be a challenge and an effort more comparable to what SpaceX wants to do with their "full scale", Starship launcher Starlink v3 satellites, launching half of that before 2032 may be a challenge without a reusable SHLV.


This particular launch used the YuanZheng-2 upper stage, it is about 8-10 tons heavy and powered by a restartable hypergolic engine, it is located under the fairing. This enabled the CZ-5B core stage to be separated on a suborbital trajectory, and it crashed off the coasts of chile instead of having an uncontrolled reentry like the previous ones. CASC has announced that there will be more dedicated CZ-5B launches for Guowang. So far CZ-5B had only been used for CMSA launches.

1734491897102.png

Some pretty pictures:
View: https://x.com/Skyfeather16/status/1868645633600770357


0061aEfAgy1hwn000gkjkj35dc3kwhdw.jpg 008hZGnZgy1hwn2gcf5sej31eq334x6q.jpg

CZ5BY6_2.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 006aWhMSgy1hwn13ndjspj34522rdnpd.jpg
    006aWhMSgy1hwn13ndjspj34522rdnpd.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 9
Last edited:
Hotfire test of Long March 9 2nd stage engine YF-90 220 tons staged combustion Hydrolox engine. Pretty high thrust for second stage engine…
The 220t thrust level stage combustion cycle Hydrogen-Lox engine (suppose the YF90) has completed it's first full system hot-fire test.
 
Since at least 2006, PRC has investigated aerospace engineering aspects associated with space-based kinetic weapons—a class of weapon used to attack ground, sea, or air targets from orbit [incl] methods of reentry, separation of payload, delivery". DoD 2024 report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China.
 
View: https://twitter.com/cnsawatcher/status/1869682326776472007


Engine Test! CASC’s 220-ton regenerative cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine designed with a specific impulse of 453s, featuring 60-100% thrust control, multiple ignitions, and advanced fault diagnosis capabilities. Full HD:

View: https://youtu.be/VE2ZXNfytTs
 
And all we are going to have hydrogen wise is Centaur and Stoke….ugh…
I think you're forgetting about the 100m tall rocket currently sitting at the cape. New Glenn - Blue Moon - Cislunar transporter is a very ambitious lunar architecture based on hydrogen propulsion.

As for the chinese, while they certainly have experience in the domain, and currently launch more hydrolox rockets than anyone else (14 in 2024), it's worth noting that they're all made by CASC-CALT with CASC-AALPT engines , unlike the US where the private sector is developping hydrogen-fueled RLVs as well as orbital tankers and tugs and landers, in China none of the private and/or reusable launcher project (except the far-off CZ-9) are working on hydrogen propulsion.
 
More to the point, while hydrogen is not a bad fuel, there are plenty of reasons to develop engines or thrusters around other options. I will not be surprised if fuel choice is heavily influenced by location; methane for Earth and Mars, hydrogen for the Moon, water for the Belt. Or argon, if very high-power electric propulsion spreads after the settlement of another world.
 
Yesterday, the company CAS Space attempted the last chinese orbital launch of the year with the 6th flight of its Kinetica/Lijian-1. It sadly lost attitude control 3 seconds after the third stage's separation and was terminated shortly after.


The launcher notably carried a commercial microgravity experiment platform (see attached) and a French cubesat, which would have been the 2nd international payload of chinese launch startups (after an Omani satellite on the last Kinetica launch).
This was the first failure of CAS Space after 5 succesful launches, it is possible that this failure could delay the upcoming CALT Jielong 3 launch next month, since these two launchers share the same SRM on the 3rd stage.

In total, there were 68 orbital launches attempts in China this year, 65 were successful, 1 was a salvaged partial failure of a kick stage and 2 were failures. 276 payloads were launched this year. This doesn't really beat last year's launch record (66 successes and 1 failure, with one success having a faulty CASC-provided kick stage), but it does in payload number (276 vs 216)
 

Attachments

  • 006aWhMSly1hwy2mcot5dj30zk0qeakn.jpg
    006aWhMSly1hwy2mcot5dj30zk0qeakn.jpg
    391.3 KB · Views: 11
So this is apparently a Chinese test of a hydrolox RDE

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf5QE3dJdZo
Look pretty unstable, but I recall article accompanying this (which I attached, you can use google translate like I did) seems to suggest that this test was mostly a success on the cooling side of thing. Allowing the engine to run decent amount of time. I guess stability will be work on later.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0765.jpeg
    IMG_0765.jpeg
    516.6 KB · Views: 7
they learn fast...

View: https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1880294359595381110
I am kinda sad that none of the Chinese company seems to follow state space program approach of catching rocket with wire like what CALT had been working on for LM-10A.

Common catching infrastructure (if that is even possible) would have been kinda cool. Or at least help develop it with one another.
 
Last edited:
One thing to look out for in the next few days: CASC-SAST plans to do a demonstration flight of a full, "Return to launch site" launch trajectory with the same "hopper" that flew back in June.
Here's a link to the live:https://live.bilibili.com/23118988

The rocket, which has since been modified (Added gridfins, fins, legs removed), will attempt a soft splashdown close to the coast after flying a trajectory going up to 75km high and maybe a few dozen km off the coast, simulating the ascent and return of a reusable first stage.

9da82ba5gy1hxigmt7mhkj244766aqv8.jpg 61024a90f603738d0730020af51bb051f819eca0.jpg
cb340e6262f92dcdd14620978aa0afa51875198641.jpg
The rocket, which is variously named CZ-12A or Longxing 2 is approximately 3.8m wide (not counting fins) and 27m tall, it is powered by 3 "Longyun" Methane/Oxygen engines (75t force thrust at sea level each) purchased from the local commercial Industry. It is therefore comparable in mass/thrust to say, Soyuz 2.1v or Titan II.

The rocket will lift off from a stand on Lianli Island near Haiyang, Shandong (36.657°N, 121.192°E)
CZ12_Notice.jpg
CZ12A_NOTAM.jpg Notice to mariners suggest this test could happen between 10:00-15:00 local (02:00-07:00 UTC) on January 19th, 20th or 21st, with windows later this months if possible.

This test should pave the way for the "4m class Reusable launch vehicle" (official name, unofficial names include CZ-12A and CZ-12R), a reusable, Methane/Oxygen fuelled, medium launcher in development by SAST. Its first launch is tentatively planned for this year.

A render:
1737171320191.png

Some other noteworthy news of the past couple weeks:
On January 6th, a CZ-3B launched Shijian 25, a Geostationary orbit refuelling satellite similar in purpose to Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle.
On January 17th, a CZ-2D launched PRSC-EO1, a Pakistani made earth observation satellite, in a relatively uncommon case of chinese launchers being used to launch a foreign satellite that isn't developped or made in china or based on chinese buses.
CNSA's head since 2018, Zhang Kejian, was replaced by Shan Zhongde, Vice-ministery of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
The Qianfan/Spacesail LEO Broadband constellation has had its first commercial application.
 
Last edited:
CASC-SAST's Longxing 2 rocket lifted off as planned at 03:00 UTC on January 19th, amateurs tracked its lift off but lost sight of it.
More than 10 hours later there hasn't been an official update (last time, it came 1h30 later), suggesting that there likely was a failure.
Rumors by insiders say that the 1st and 2nd propulsive phase (Ascent and what is likely either a "boostback" or "reentry" burn) worked but the 3rd propulsive phase didn't.


008iEnCgly1hxpzj0b87nj36bk47sqvc.jpg


008iEnCgly1hxpzj2z6xej35jo3p4npe.jpg
008iEnCgly1hxpziv3ecxj33hq58lnpk.jpg
 
The lunar dynamo being that which drove the moon's magnetic field up until about 1-1.5 billion years ago. It worked for ~140 million years before expiration.
 


Write your reply...

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom