China placed communications and technology demonstration satellites into orbit in separate launches on Thursday and Friday. The successful missions marked the 46th and 47th launches by China in 2021, with 45 successes and two failures. On Friday, a Long March 3B rocket launched the ChinaSat-1D communications satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The geosynchronous satellite will be used for military communications. The spacecraft and the launch vehicle were build […]

Editor’s Note: The satellite will replace Nusantara-2, aka Palapa-N1, which was destroyed during the failed launch of China’s Long March 3B rocket on April 9, 2020.

DJAKARTA, Dubai, October 28, 2021 (Thales Alenia Space PR) – Thales Alenia Space announced that it has signed a contract with the leading satellite service provider in Indonesia, PT Telkom Satelit Indonesia (Telkomsat) as subsidiary of PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) a state-owned digital telecommunication company in Indonesia, to build HTS 113BT, a new High Throughput Satellite telecommunications satellite in C-band/Ku-Band from its orbital position at 113° East.

China’s surging space program showed no sign of slowing down last year as it tied its own launch record and moved ahead with ambitious space missions and a set of new launchers.

China compiled a record of 35 successes and four failures in 2020. That matched the number of launch attempts made in 2018, a year that saw 38 successes and a single failure.

SpaceX dominated, China surged and Russia had another clean sheet as American astronauts flew from U.S. soil again in a year of firsts.

First in a series

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a very busy launch year with a number of firsts in both human and robotic exploration. A total of 114 orbital launches were attempted, with 104 successes and 10 failures. It was the same number of launches that were conducted in 2018, with that year seeing 111 successes, two failures and one partial failure.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

There were 27 orbital launch attempts with 26 successes and one failure during the first quarter of 2021. The United States accounted for nearly half the total with 13 launches behind nine flights by SpaceX.

by Douglas MessierManaging Editor China’s Long March 7A rocket made its first successful flight on Friday, placing a technology verification satellite into orbit nearly a year after the booster failed in its maiden launch. The booster lifted off at 1:51 a.m. from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China. The payload was the Shiyan-9 satellite, which will demonstrate new technologies. A variant of the Long March 7 rocket, the […]

BEIJING (CASC PR) — At 23:36 on February 4, the Long March 3B carrier rocket lifted the communication technology test satellite No. 6 into the sky frm the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Subsequently, the satellite was successfully sent into the predetermined orbit, and the launch mission was a complete success. The communication technology test satellite No. 6 was developed by the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) […]

BEIJING (CASC PR) — At 00:25 on January 20, the Long March 3B carrier rocket ignited and lifted off at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, and then sent the Tiantong-1 03 satellite into the scheduled orbit. The launch mission was a complete success.

BEIJING (CALT PR) — On Dec. 6 at 11:58 a.m., the Long March 3B successfully launched the Gaofen 14 remote sensing satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. There are two major changes in the Long March 3B rocket that performed the mission: the fairing has been increased by 900 mm; and it will perform the low-orbit launch mission for the first time. The Gaofen 14 satellite launched […]

BEIJING (China Aerospace Science and Technology Group PR) — At 23:59 on November 12th, China successfully launched the Tiantong-1 02 satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center using the Long March 3B carrier rocket. The satellite entered the scheduled orbit and the launch mission was a complete success.

The launch of the Tiantong-1 02 satellite was developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and is an important part of the Tiantong-1 satellite mobile communication system.