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.
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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.
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JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (CNSA PR) — At 12:03 on May 19, China used the Long March 4B carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to successfully launch the Haiyang 2D satellite. The satellite successfully entered the scheduled orbit, and the mission was a complete success. Haiyang 2D is the third operational satellite of the National Space Infrastructure Ocean Power Satellite series. It will form my country’s Ocean […]
A Chinese Long March 4B rocket launched the Shiyan-6 03 experimental satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Friday, April 9. Shiyan-6 was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Microsatellite Innovation. The spacecraft was described in official press reports as being used for space environment detection and related technology experiments. It was the 365th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets.
China and Russia conducted launches on Sunday and Monday, placing five primary payloads and a group of rideshare satellites into orbit. A Chinese Long March 4B booster lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center early Sunday morning. The three-stage rocket carried the Huanjing 2A and 2B environmental monitoring satellites into orbit. Chinese media said the satellites will collect data for environmental protection, water conservancy, natural resources monitoring, agriculture and […]
TAIYUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China (CNSA PR) — At 13:57 on September 7, the Long March 4B carrier rocket ignited and lifted off at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, successfully sending the Gaofen 11 02 satellite into the scheduled orbit, and the launch was a complete success. Gaofen 11 02 is an optical remote sensing satellite with a ground pixel resolution of up to sub-meter level. It is mainly used […]
HONG KONG (HKATG PR) — On July 25, 2020, China’s Long March-4B carrier rocket was successfully launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, and the space exploration satellite named “Lobster Eye X-ray Explorer” was successfully put into orbit. The “Lobster Eye X-ray Explorer” is the first space exploration satellite in the world to apply X-ray technology focusing with lobster-eye optics.
In its design and development process, all participators including the Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, Ltd. (HKATG) co-innovated in the basic research, engineering technology and applications to carry out the full-chain, systematic research and development work, which have made great contributions to strengthening China’s independent innovation capabilities in space astronomy, deep space exploration, and space remote sensing, etc.
(more…)China launched the classified Shiyan-6 (02) reconnaissance satellite on Sunday, marking the country’s second successful launch in two days. A Long March 2D rocket lofted the spacecraft into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the satellite will be “mainly used to carry out space environment detection and related technical tests.” Western experts believe the description is used for reconnaissance satellites. The […]
BEIJING (CGWIC PR) — At 11:26, September 12th, 2019 BJT, the 5-meter Optical Satellite was successfully launched by Long March 4B (LM-4B) launch vehicle from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC), with two small satellites aboard, ICE-PATHFINDER (also known as BNU-1) of Beijing Normal University and Taurus-1 of Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology Co. Ltd.
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The Soyuz MS-02 rocket is launched with Expedition 49 Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and flight engineer Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Part 2 of 2
There were 85 orbital launches in 2016, not including the Falcon 9 that exploded on launch pad prior to a pre-flight engine test. The launches break down as follow:
For a more detailed description of these launches, please read US, China Led World in Launches in 2016.
Let’s look at launches by booster and spaceport and the flights that were required for human spaceflight.
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