Tag: China
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China launches Beidou satellite, aims for completion of navigation network in May
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off Monday with a Beidou navigation satellite. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese Long March 3B launcher carried a Beidou satellite into orbit Monday, adding the penultimate satellite to China’s independent navigation fleet before another mission in May completes the constellation to give it a global reach. The Beidou navigation payload…
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Long March-2D conducts maiden launch from Xichang with four satellites
Taking precautions with the coronavirus outbreak in all orbital and space launch centers, China returned to its launch activities after the Chinese New Year festivities with a new launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This was the first use of a Long March-2D (Chang Zheng-2D) launch vehicle from Xichang. The mission orbited four satellites…
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China launches four ‘technology experiment satellites’
A Chinese Long March 2D rocket lifted off Wednesday with four technology experiment satellites, according to Chinese state media. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese Long March 2D rocket carried four “technology experiment satellites” into orbit Wednesday from the Xichang space center in southwestern China, according to the country’s state-run media. Few details about the satellites were…
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Prototypes for new Chinese crew capsule and space station arrive at launch site
A prototype of China’s new crew capsule will launch as soon as April on an unpiloted test flight in Earth orbit. Credit: CCTV The next flight of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket will debut a new configuration designed to launch modules for a Chinese space station. But a demonstration launch of the Long March…
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Kuaizhou 1A rocket lofts Chinese broadband test satellite
A Kuaizhou 1A launcher lifts off Thursday from the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China. Credit: CASIC A solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A launcher carried a commercial broadband communications satellite into orbit Thursday for GalaxySpace, a Chinese company that says it plans to launch up to 144 spacecraft for a space-based 5G network in the next few…
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Kuaizhou-1A lofts Yinhe-1 for China
China conducted its second orbital launch in 2020 orbiting the first test technology demonstration satellite for a 5G constellation, named Yinhe-1. Launch took place at 03:00UTC on January 16 using the Kuaizhou-1A (Y9) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Also designated GS-SparkSat-03, the 227 kg Yinhe-1 satellite will be operated by GalaxySpace, a Beijing-based communications…
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Argentine smallsats hitch ride with Chinese payloads on Long March rocket
A Long March 2D rocket lifts off from the Taiyuan space base Wednesday with four satellites on-board. Credit: Xinhua Two Earth-imaging microsatellites built and owned by the Argentine company Satellogic launched on a Long March 2D rocket from China Wednesday, sharing a ride into orbit with two Chinese spacecraft. The ÑuSat 7 and 8 satellites…
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Long March 2D launches Kuanfu-1 and co-passengers
China launched another satellite for its Jilin-1 remote sensing constellation orbiting the Kuanfu-1 (Wideband-1) satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on January 15. The launch took place at around 03:02 UTC from the LC9 launch complex using the Long March-2D (Y58) rocket. Together with Jilin-1 Kuanfu-1, the first mission from Taiyuan in 2020 orbited…
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Long March 3B launch opens China’s busy 2020 schedule
After the successful return to flight of the powerful Long March 5 closing the orbital launch activities for China in 2019, the country launched another secretive Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing (TJSW) satellite on January 7, opening what could be a record-breaking year. The launch took place at around 15:20 UTC using the Long March 3B/G2…
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China’s first launch of 2020 lofts mystery payload
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off Tuesday with the TJS 5 satellite. Credit: People’s Daily A Chinese Long March 3B rocket launched a satellite Tuesday toward a position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth. Chinese state media claimed the mysterious spacecraft has a communication and television broadcast mission,…