Tag: China
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Chinese mission returned nearly 4 pounds of lunar samples
Staff members handle the capsule containing lunar samples returned by the Chang’e 5 mission. Credit: Xinhua Chinese officials say they plan to share a portion of the nearly 4 pounds of lunar material returned by the Chang’e 5 mission with other countries, but an allocation for U.S. scientists will hinge on a change in U.S.…
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China launches secret military spy payload
A Long March 4C rocket took off Sunday with the Yaogan 33 satellite. Credit: Xinhua A secret Chinese military payload, believed to be a surveillance satellite, successfully flew into space Sunday aboard a Long March 4C rocket on China’s 39th and final scheduled orbital launch attempt of the year. The military satellite and a smaller…
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China’s Long March 8 rocket successful in debut launch
A Long March 8 rocket lifts off from Sunday (U.S. time) from the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island. Credit: Xinhua A new Chinese launch vehicle, the Long March 8, has successfully placed five payloads into orbit on its first mission, debuting an expendable booster intended to eventually be outfitted for recovery and reuse. The…
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Long March 8 – a future reusable rocket – conducts debut launch
China debuted the new Long March-8 – Chang Zheng-8 – launch vehicle out of Wenchang on Tuesday. This vehicle marks China’s move towards a reusable launch vehicle, with the recovery of the first stage and side boosters planned for a latter variant. Loaded with a cargo of satellites, the first (Y1) Long March-8 (LM-8) was…
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Chinese sample return capsule lands on Earth after round-trip flight to moon
The Chang’e 5 sample return capsule landed in China’s Inner Mongolia region Wednesday. Credit: CNSA A capsule containing moon rocks landed in a remote, snow-covered corner of China Wednesday, bringing home the first samples from the lunar surface in 44 years and completing the Chinese space program’s most challenging robotic mission to date. The return…
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Chinese spacecraft heading back to Earth with lunar samples
Illustration of the Chang’e 5 mission’s remaining trajectory toward Earth, colored green, and the mission’s previous path around the moon, in red. Credit: CNSA A Chinese spacecraft ferrying rocks drilled from the moon’s surface is on course to land back on Earth Wednesday and deliver the first fresh lunar samples to scientists since the 1970s.…
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China launches two small satellites for gravitational wave research
A Long March 11 rocket lifts off from the Xichang space base with the GECAM mission. Credit: CAS Two small Chinese satellites designed to detect gamma-ray bursts associated with gravitational waves launched Wednesday on a Long March 11 rocket, beginning an astrophysics research mission to study black holes and neutron stars. The Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic…
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China launches Earth-observation satellite for stereo mapping
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from the Xichang launch base at 11:58 a.m. Beijing time Sunday with the Gaofen 14 satellite. Credit: Xinhua China launched an optical stereo mapping satellite Sunday, using an upgraded version of the country’s Long March 3B rocket with an extended payload shroud to deliver the Earth-imaging spacecraft into…
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Chinese mission accomplishes first-ever robotic docking in lunar orbit
Chang’e 5’s ascender spacecraft approaches the mission’s return vehicle in lunar orbit. Credit: CNSA The Chinese Chang’e 5 mission accomplished the first robotic docking between two spacecraft orbiting the moon Saturday, when a lunar ascent spacecraft linked up with an Earth return vehicle and transferred a container of moon rocks to bring home in mid-December.…
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China’s Chang’e 5 sample return craft takes off from the moon
The Chang’e 5 ascender spacecraft lifts off from the moon in this view from an upward-facing camera on the mission’s descent stage, which remained on the moon’s surface. Credit: CNSA Wrapping up a busy two days on the lunar surface, a Chinese spacecraft carrying moon soil took off from a makeshift launch pad and fired…