by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
During the first seven months of the year, five new satellite launch vehicles from Europe, China, Russia and South Korea flew successfully for the first time. As impressive as that is, it was a mere opening act to a busy period that could see at least 20 additional launchers debut around the world.
(more…)
A Chinese Long March 11 rocket launched the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) mission on Thursday. Long March 11 lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 4:14 a.m. The two GECAM satellites were placed in their intended orbits, according to a press release from Long March 11’s developer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). The GECAM satellites, which each weigh 163 kg, are designed to […]
Long March 2F rocket in flight carrying Shenzhou-11. (Credit: CCTV)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
The year 2018 was the busiest one for launches in decades. There were a total of 111 completely successful launches out of 114 attempts. It was the highest total since 1990, when 124 launches were conducted.
China set a new record for launches in 2018. The nation launched 39 times with 38 successes in a year that saw a private Chinese company fail in the country’s first ever orbital launch attempt.
Long March 5 on the launch pad. (Credit: China National Space Administration)
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
In recent weeks, Chinese officials have revealed more details about the investigation into the Long March 5 launch failure last year as well as their ambitious launch plans for this year, which include a landing on the far side of the moon.
Long March 5 will be returned to flight in the second half of 2018, according to Bao Weimin, head of the Science and Technology Committee of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). Engineers have identified the cause of a launch failure that occurred last July and are working to verify it, he said.
Long March 5 on the launch pad. (Credit: China National Space Administration)
With the successful maiden flight of its heavy-lift Long March 5 booster on Thursday, China has debuted four new launch vehicles in just under 14 months.
The list includes two new boosters — Long March 6 and Long March 11 — that are designed to serve the growing small-satellite launch market. The Long March 7 launcher is a medium-lift booster designed to replace several existing boosters.
Spurred on by developments in the United States, China says it is working on reusable human spacecraft and launch vehicles. China is studying how to retrieve and reuse manned spacecraft in its future missions, the chief engineer of the nation’s manned space program said on Sunday. “It’s our next goal to reuse manned spacecraft. We want to make our space exploration cost-effective,” Zhou Jianping said, as China marks Space Day, […]
The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) is developing a smallsat launch vehicle set to fly in about two years, according to a presentation made on Wednesday during the International Astronautical Conference in Jerusalem. Mark Schaffer (@mgschaffer), a senior Senior Aerospace Engineer at SpaceWorks Enterprises, provided the following details via Twitter on a presentation by Haoliang Yang of the Beijing Institute of Astronautical Systems Engineering. Name: Naga-L or Naga-1 […]
