{"id":38440,"date":"2018-05-20T19:02:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T11:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/queqiao-relay-satellite-launched-ahead-of-change-4-lunar-mission\/"},"modified":"2018-05-20T19:02:26","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T11:02:26","slug":"queqiao-relay-satellite-launched-ahead-of-change-4-lunar-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/queqiao-relay-satellite-launched-ahead-of-change-4-lunar-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Queqiao relay satellite launched ahead of Chang\u2019e-4 lunar mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Chinese Long March 4C has launched the&nbsp;Queqiao spacecraft \u2013 a relay satellite for the upcoming&nbsp;Chang\u2019e-4 lunar mission. Launch occurred from the LC-3 pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre (XSLC) at 21:25 UTC.<\/p>\n<p>This latest launch is part of China\u2019s growing ambitions for lunar exploration, which has already achieved numerous&nbsp;successes.&nbsp;Chang\u2019e-1 was launched in 2007 and and Chang\u2019e-2 in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>The previous mission involved the&nbsp;Chang\u2019e-3 probe and Yutu lunar rover. Chang\u2019e is the name of the Chinese moon goddess.<\/p>\n<p>The mission, from the trip to the Moon, the landing on the lunar surface and the Rover\u2019s \u2013 nicknamed Jade Rabbit \u2013 short road trip, all captivated the Chinese public and fostered their support for China\u2019s future exploration goals.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1597\" height=\"685\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202.jpg 1597w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202-350x150.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202-630x270.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202-768x329.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204202-1170x502.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1597px) 100vw, 1597px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-56450\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Jade Rabbit. (Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP)\/ China National Space Administration (CNSA))<\/p>\n<p>Now preparations are in full swing to move on to the Chang\u2019e-4 mission that is set to take place later this year. Once again it will involve a lander and a rover.<\/p>\n<p>However, there will also be a variety of international payloads riding along with this mission, some of whom will have been attracted by the success of the previous expedition.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=NASASpaceflight&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=998245276463726592&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nasaspaceflight.com%2F2018%2F05%2Fqueqiao-relay-satellite-launched-change-4-lunar-mission%2F&amp;sessionId=03906686433666f79e2659832c71ad2c80d8b63c&amp;siteScreenName=NASASpaceflight&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\" data-tweet-id=\"998245276463726592\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1783498813823790767=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here are the detailed technical specifications for all 6 Chinese and 3 European instruments on the CE-4 relay satellite, lander and rover! https:\/\/t.co\/lYC0Pozl6d@elakdawalla @AJ_FI @NASASpaceflight<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) May 20, 2018<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The landing site for this mission is expected to be&nbsp;the Von K\u00e1rm\u00e1n crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. If successful, this will be the first spacecraft to land&nbsp;on the far side of the Moon.<\/p>\n<p>As such, a communication relay will be required to communicate with Earth.<\/p>\n<p>NASA mission updates<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>Aerospace &amp; Defense<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>SpaceX<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>Queqiao will provide that role. Launched to an eventual L2 Halo Orbit (Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point), the satellite will have a lifetime of five years, covering both this and potentially another Chang\u2019e mission.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56451\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204332.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"521\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204332.jpg 521w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-20-204332-350x183.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 521px) 100vw, 521px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-56451\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rare diagram of the relay satellite in the Chinese media<\/p>\n<p>The spacecraft is based on the CAST100 small satellite platform, with commonality to the often used DFHSat system that finds its way on to a number of Chinese spacecraft. It has a mass of 425kg and uses a hydrazine propulsion system.<\/p>\n<p>It will transmit telemetry back to Earth via its S-band antenna, while X-band data will provide the communication path between the lander and rover.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Chinese Forum Section<\/li>\n<li>65 Launch Vehicle Manuals (L2)<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More robotic missions are planned and despite China\u2019s solid progression with its crewed program, a crewed lunar landing is still around 15 years away.<\/p>\n<p>There were reports of two microsatellites joining this mission, providing a combination of radio astronomy and amateur radio outreach work \u2013 which enthusiasts would be able to download telemetry and images. These satellites would be set into an elliptical lunar orbit.<\/p>\n<p>They are understood to be called&nbsp;DSLWP-A1\/A2, with a mass of 45kg.&nbsp; They were also provided with names,&nbsp;Longjiang No. 1 and No. 2.<\/p>\n<p>While Queqiao or \u2018magpie bridge\u2019 comes from Chinese mythology.&nbsp;Longjiang means \u2018Dragon River\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket that launched this mission was the Long March 4C.<\/p>\n<p>With its main commonality matched to the Long March-4B, the 4C first stage has a 24.65 meter length with a 3.35 meter diameter, consuming 183,340 kg of N2O4\/UDMH (gross mass of first stage is 193.330 kg).<\/p>\n<p>The vehicle is equipped with a YF-21B engine capable of a ground thrust of 2,971 kN and a ground specific impulse of 2,550 Ns\/kg. The second stage has a 10.40 meter length with a 3.35 meter diameter and 38,326 kg, consuming 35,374 kg of N2O4\/UDMH.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56267\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1156\" height=\"710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918.jpg 1156w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918-350x215.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918-570x350.jpg 570w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918-180x110.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-07-221918-768x472.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1156px) 100vw, 1156px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-56267\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Long March 4C<\/p>\n<p>It includes a YF-22B main engine capable of a vacuum thrust of 742 kN and four YF-23B vernier engines with a vacuum thrust of 47.1 kN (specific impulses of 2,922 Ns\/kg and 2,834 Ns\/kg, respectively).<\/p>\n<p>The third stage has a 4.93 meter length with a 2.9 meter diameter, consuming 12,814 kg of N2O4\/UDMH. Having a gross mass of 14,560 kg, it is equipped with a YF-40 engine capable of a vacuum thrust of 100.8 kN and a specific impulse in a vacuum of 2,971 Ns\/kg.<\/p>\n<p>The Xichang Satellite Launch Centre is situated in the Sichuan Province, south-western China and is the country\u2019s launch site for geosynchronous orbital launches.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56206\" class=\"wp-image-56206 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-03-153036.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1139\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-03-153036.jpg 1139w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-03-153036-350x167.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-03-153036-630x300.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-03-153036-768x365.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1139px) 100vw, 1139px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-56206\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Xichang launch site<\/p>\n<p>Equipped with two launch pads (LC2 and LC3), the center has a dedicated railway and highway lead directly to the launch site.<\/p>\n<p>The Command and Control Centre is located seven kilometers south-west of the launch pad, providing flight and safety control during launch rehearsal and launch.<\/p>\n<p>Other facilities on the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre are the Launch Control Centre, propellant fuelling systems, communications systems for launch command, telephone and data communications for users, and support equipment for meteorological monitoring and forecasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Chinese Long March 4C has launched the&nbsp;Queqiao spacecraft \u2013 a relay satellite for the upcoming&nbsp;Chang\u2019e-4 lunar mission. Launch occurred from the LC-3 pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre (XSLC) at 21:25 UTC. This latest launch is part of China\u2019s growing ambitions for lunar exploration, which has already achieved numerous&nbsp;successes.&nbsp;Chang\u2019e-1 was launched in 2007 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1942,135,205],"class_list":["post-38440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-change","tag-china","tag-long-march"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}