Tag: China
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Long March rocket blasts off on first launch of the year
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 1518 GMT (10:18 a.m. EST) Thursday. Credit: CCTV A new satellite bound for geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator launched aboard a Chinese Long March 3B rocket Thursday, but government officials have released little information about its mission. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported…
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Chinese Earth observation satellites launched into lower-than-planned orbit
Two commercial Earth-imaging satellites launched by a Chinese Long March 2D booster Wednesday are flying in lower-than-planned orbits after an apparent rocket mishap, according to tracking data published by the U.S. military. The two SuperView 1, or Gaojing 1, satellites are flying in egg-shaped orbits ranging from 133 miles (214 kilometers) to 325 miles (524…
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China lays out plans to put probe on moon’s far side in 2018 – and on Mars in 2020
An artist’s conception shows the Chang’e 4 spacecraft landing on the moon. (CCTV via YouTube) China’s latest white paper on space exploration confirms the country’s plans to send a rover to the moon’s far side in 2018 and put a rover on Mars in 2020. Today’s white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, says the…
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China sends carbon-monitoring satellite into orbit
A Long March 2D rocket lifted off Wednesday with China’s TanSat carbon-monitoring satellite. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese satellite designed to track greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere rode into orbit Wednesday aboard a Long March 2D rocket, joining an international fleet of orbiting carbon dioxide monitors aimed at combating climate change. The TanSat mission took off…
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New-generation geostationary weather satellite launched by China
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off Saturday with the Fengyun 4A weather satellite. Credit: Xinhua The first satellite in an upgraded series of Chinese geostationary weather observatories lifted off on top of a Long March 3B rocket Saturday to demonstrate the performance of new spacecraft systems and instrumentation. The nearly 11,700-pound (5,300-kilogram) Fengyun 4A…
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China launches data relay satellite for future space station crews
A Long March 3C/G2 rocket lifted off with the fourth Tianlian 1 data relay satellite Tuesday. Credit: Xinhua China added a fourth craft Tuesday to a network of geostationary data relay satellites tasked with keeping mission control in steady contact with Shenzhou crew capsules and a planned space station. The new satellite is the fourth…
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Two Chinese astronauts back on Earth
China’s spacecraft recovery team works around the Shenzhou 11 landing capsule Friday after its touchdown in Inner Mongolia. Credit: Xinhua Two Chinese astronauts closed out a month in space Friday with a parachute-assisted landing in northern China’s remote Inner Mongolia territory, a day after the crew departed the Tiangong 2 space lab to begin the…
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Mysterious weather satellite launched from China
A Long March 2D rocket lifted off at 2314 GMT (6:14 p.m. EST) Friday with the Yunhai 1 weather satellite. Credit: Xinhua China launched a polar-orbiting weather satellite Friday to take data on the atmosphere and seas, state media announced, but Chinese officials offered little detail on the craft’s mission. The Yunhai 1 satellite lifted…
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China lofts pulsar navigation demo satellite
A Long March 11 rocket blasts off from the Jiuquan space center at 2342 GMT (6:42 p.m. EST) Wednesday. Credit: CCTV China launched an innovative satellite Wednesday that will look for X-ray signals from pulsars, the fast-spinning super-dense remnants of collapsed stars, to determine its exact location in space. The experimental pulsar navigation mission carries…
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Video: Long March 5 rocket lifts off on maiden flight
China debuted its new Long March 5 rocket Thursday with a successful nighttime blastoff on top of 2.4 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust from the country’s new Hainan Island spaceport. Powered by 10 engines, the 187-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket took off at 1243 GMT (8:43 a.m. EDT; 8:43 p.m. Beijing time) and sent an experimental satellite…