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Chinese Space Program (CNSA) & Ch. commercial launch and discussion


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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/27/2018 at 2:56 PM, NSEP said:

 

Looks like they closely missed an village unless its houses behind the hill, looks like village follows an road.
If I lived there I would request counter battery fire :)

 

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Some really interesting news about Long March 8 + 9:

LM9 will be comparable to Saturn 5, 140 tons to LEO, 50 tons to TLI, 44 tons to TMI

It will have a hydrolox core stage and kerolox boosters.

LM8 will be a new, partially reusable booster, both the core stage and the lateral boosters will be VTVL designs. No word if this is an RTLS system, or if new landing zones will be built. Also, its going to have a hydrolox upper stage, and will have tankage based on the LM3. Oddly, its boosters are solid fueled, so I'm assuming parachute recovery for them.

LM8 will first launch in 2021, with LM9 in 2030

Also, CALT has confirmed that by 2035, they want to have all of their boosters be reusable.

https://www.space.com/41102-china-reveals-details-for-super-heavy-lift-long-march-9-and-reusable-long-march-8-rockets.html

Edit: They also want to use LM9 to attempt a direct sample return... from Mars!

Edited by MinimumSky5
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1 hour ago, MinimumSky5 said:

LM8 will be a new, partially reusable booster, both the core stage and the lateral boosters will be VTVL designs. No word if this is an RTLS system, or if new landing zones will be built. Also, its going to have a hydrolox upper stage, and will have tankage based on the LM3. Oddly, its boosters are solid fueled, so I'm assuming parachute recovery for them.

LM8 will first launch in 2021, with LM9 in 2030

Nice to see China join the reusability game, and are planning to join the fun in 2020s, rather than waiting for too long.

Also great to see that they are lowering down on the Devil's Venom.

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10 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

Oooh, look, a thread on Chinese launch webcasts. They're so rare. I better follow this.

If you get any heads up on coverage, make sure to post here!

The thread title is CNSA, but I think for now we are also including all Chinese commercial launch companies in here (there are several now working on launch vehicles). If any start launching enough, I suppose we split them out.

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4 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

I wished our space program isn't as secretive as it is. 

Yeah, I'd be watching the launches live, just like I watch as many live as possible wherever they are.

 

4 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

(Yup I live in Hong Kong!)

Cool. I really liked HK the 2 times I was there (back when it was under British control, lol), it's a fun city.

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4 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

I wished our space program isn't as secretive as it is. 

(Yup I live in Hong Kong!)

Think is mostly institutional tradition now, its kind of hard to launch an orbital rocket stealthy.
As I understand its also standard to warn about upcoming orbital launches simply as you spot them with satellites anyway. 
Back in the 50s you could keep it secret and USSR often did not announce launches until after they was an success.
Payloads on the other hand is pretty easy to keep secret even the US manages it. 
 

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2 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

I'd imagine the CNSA to have some Soviet traditions, given that our spacecraft technology is largely based on the Soviet's. For example, our Shenzhou spacecraft has a large visual resemblance to the Soyuz.

Yes, I like the cylindrical orbital module better because of more volume. having it in front makes an abort a bit harder but you don't have to do an Apollo(/SLS) style rotation and dock to use it so it probably win in mass.  

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18 hours ago, Ho Lam Kerman said:

I'd imagine the CNSA to have some Soviet traditions, given that our spacecraft technology is largely based on the Soviet's. For example, our Shenzhou spacecraft has a large visual resemblance to the Soyuz.

Not, its not just resemblence, that thing is a goddamn soyuz. The 3 module design, solar panels, rounded capsule, retrorockets...

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