Tag: Long March 5
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China’s Long March 5 rocket poised for crucial return-to-flight launch
China’s third Long March 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad Dec. 21 at the Wenchang space center on Hainan Island. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 5 rocket — the country’s most powerful launcher — is set for its third flight Friday on a critical validation mission after a core stage engine failure doomed…
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Chinese Mars rover completes landing trial ahead of 2020 launch
A test model of China’s first Mars rover, set for launch in mid-2020, performs a landing test Nov. 14 inside a specially-built rig in northern China’s Hebei province. Credit: Xinhua China has performed a hover and hazard avoidance test on a model the country’s first Mars rover, while engineers ready the real spacecraft for launch…
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China on pace to resume Long March 5 launches by end of year
File photo of the second Long March 5 rocket before its ill-fated launch in July 2017. Credit: Xinhua Components for China’s third Long March 5 rocket arrived at the country’s southern launch base this week as teams prepare for the first flight of the heavy-lift launcher since a 2017 mission ended in failure. The return-to-flight…
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Chinese space station testbed ends mission with controlled re-entry
A prototype space lab module for China’s planned space station re-entered the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean Friday to end a nearly three-year mission that included a visit from Chinese astronauts and an in-orbit refueling demonstration. The 34.1-foot-long (10.4-meter) Tiangong 2 module plunged into Earth’s atmosphere at 1306 GMT (9:06 a.m. EDT) Friday…
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China set to deorbit disused Tiangong 2 space lab
This view of the Tiangong 2 and Shenzhou 11 docked complex was captured Oct. 23, 2016, and downlinked to Earth on Tuesday by the Banxing 2 microsatellite. In this photo, Shenzhou 11 is at the top of the image, and Tiangong 2 is at the bottom of the frame. Credit: CCTV China’s Tiangong 2 space…
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Launch of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket declared a failure
China’s second Long March 5 rocket lifted off at 1123 GMT (7:23 a.m. EDT; 7:23 p.m. Beijing time) Sunday. Credit: Xinhua China’s second Long March 5 rocket fell short of orbit Sunday after lifting off from a spaceport in the southern Chinese province of Hainan, clouding the country’s plans to send a robotic sample return…
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Second launch of China’s Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket set for Sunday
The Long March 5 rocket begins its rollout to a launch pad at the Wenchang space center Monday, June 26. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 5 rocket is counting down to liftoff Sunday from the country’s tropical island space center with a high-power, electrically-propelled communications satellite. The heavy-lifter is scheduled to blast off from the…
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China’s space station plan bolstered by year of successes
Artist’s concept of China’s planned space station. Credit: CMSA A series of achievements in China’s space program over the last 12 months have set the stage to start construction of the country’s first space station in 2019, a year later than previously scheduled, officials said Friday. “Since 2016, we have successfully launched the Long March…
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China’s space station plan bolstered by year of successes
Artist’s concept of China’s planned space station. Credit: CMSA A series of achievements in China’s space program over the last 12 months have set the stage to start construction of the country’s first space station in 2019, a year later than previously scheduled, officials said Friday. “Since 2016, we have successfully launched the Long March…
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China sets November launch for lunar sample return mission
File photo of the moon seen from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA China plans to launch a robotic mission to return samples from the lunar surface, the first such mission in four decades, in November on top of the country’s new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket, according to state media reports. The government-run Xinhua…