Posted on June 9, 2012, at 10:16 am .
A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight
Xinhua has an update on China’s human spaceflight program:
China will launch its Shenzhou-9 manned spacecraft sometime in mid-June to perform the country’s first manned space docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module, a spokesperson said here Saturday.
The spacecraft and its carrier rocket, the Long March-2F, were moved to the launch platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Saturday, a spokesperson with the country’s manned space program said….
Continue reading ‘China to Launch Astronauts to Space Station Soon’
Posted on June 6, 2012, at 12:54 pm .
The Defense Department’s annual report to Congress, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2012,” includes an interesting section on that nation’s rapidly growing space program. The report finds progress across a broad range of areas from human spaceflight to global positioning systems and capabilities for disable foreign military satellites. It also cautions that the Chinese are facing issues with reliability due to a surging launch rate.
The relevant section is reproduced below.
Continue reading ‘China Space Capabilities Growing as Reliability Issues Surface’
Posted on May 29, 2012, at 1:45 pm .
SSI President Gary Hudson will appear on The Space Show with David Livingston tonight from 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT).
Gary will discuss his G-Lab plan for a variable gravity research station in low Earth orbit.
To listen live to The Space Show podcast, go to http://www.thespaceshow.com. The show will be archived later in the week if you can’t listen in live.
—–
SSI Vice President for Research John Lewis was on the show last night talking about asteroid mining and the Chinese space program. The show is now archived for listening.
Posted on March 27, 2012, at 11:41 am .
A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight
Check out this update on cooperation with China on human spaceflight:
European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain met with his Chinese counterpart March 22-23 to discuss future cooperation in manned spaceflight, including the potential for a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The two sides met at Dordain’s request on the sidelines of the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) launch to the ISS March 23 to further establish a dialogue and lay the groundwork for potential Sino-European cooperation in manned spaceflight.
“For the moment we cannot dock and rendezvous with the ISS, because our system is not the same as the Americans or the Russians,” said Wang Zhaoyao, the newly named director general of the China Manned Space Engineering Office (Cmseo), adding that experts from both agencies are expected to establish a working group that will meet in Paris next month to discuss Shenzhou’s compatibility with a planned ISS common docking mechanism. “We would like to have cooperation.”
Dordain says the two sides are discussing a range of collaborative opportunities in the area of manned spaceflight, including astronaut training, life-support systems and utilization of each other’s space station facilities.
Read the full story.
Posted on March 7, 2012, at 6:43 am .
China's Long March family of rockets. Credit: Jirka Dlouhy
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
Liang Xiaohong, deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, recently spoke publicly about his nation’s rocket plans, which include two new versions of the Long March for orbital flights, a heavy-lift vehicle for sending taikonauts to the moon, and reusable booster technology.
First, the Long March 5:
China has made key technological progress in developing Long March 5 large-thrust carrier rocket and it is hopeful that the new generation rocket will make its maiden flight in 2014, a rocket scientist said Saturday.
Continue reading ‘China Eyes Human Lunar Missions as Long March Development Progresses’
Posted on March 5, 2012, at 6:40 am .
Support for bringing China, India and other nations into the International Space Station partnership appears to be growing following a meeting of the five families space agency heads in Canada last week:
“We are not a closed club, our doors are wide open,” Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Russian Space agency, said after a meeting Thursday of the leaders of the organizations involved in the station.
Popovkin ventured that the day will come when China and India will work together with the five ISS partners — Canada, the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency.
Continue reading ‘Will China, India Join International Space Station Partnership?’
Posted on February 21, 2012, at 12:53 pm .
China's Tiangong-1 space laboratory with a Shenzhou spacecraft approaching it. (Credit: CNSA)
Three taikonauts aboard China’s Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will dock with the Tiangong-1 space station between June and August, Chinese officials have announced. This will be the first human stay aboard the nation’s first space station, which was launched last year.
The taikonauts will validate rendezvous and docking procedures and conduct experiments aboard the laboratory. Chinese officials have not announced how long the mission will last. A second human is set to follow with Shenzhou 10.
Posted on January 2, 2012, at 4:30 am .
China’s Space Activities in 2011
Chinese Government White Paper
December 29, 2011
II. Progress Made Since 2006
Since 2006, China has made rapid progress in its space industry. Breakthroughs have been made in major space projects, including human spaceflight and lunar exploration; space technology has been generally upgraded remarkably; the economic and social benefits of space applications have been noticeably enhanced; and innovative achievements have been made in space science.
Continue reading ‘White Paper: China’s Progress in Space Since 2006′
Posted on December 30, 2011, at 12:36 pm .
Musk is referring to an urban legend — apparently spread by cheese-eating, upper-class French surrender monkeys — that Catherine was crushed to death while trying to make love to a stallion. (In reality, she died in bed of a stroke at age 67.)
Although his choice of Twitter topics is odd, Musk’s selection of reading material is not. Massie is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs.
Oh, I see he also made some comments about the Chinese and the state of rocketry which seem reasonable enough and I’m sure have no connection to his other topic.
Posted on December 29, 2011, at 4:14 pm .
As the Chinese space program has grown more powerful, the nation is steadily increasing its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other nations and international bodies. A white paper on China’s space program released by the government today provides a summary of some of the more prominent cooperative activities.
Although China’s international outreach does not seem to be as broad as NASA’s activities, the emerging space power has forged links with most of the world’s major space powers, including Russia, ESA and individual European nations. It also has bilateral agreements with Brazil, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Cooperation with the United States has been frozen because of a Congressional ban on any such discussions. The restriction remains in place in the current budget, but the law includes a provision allowing discussions to go forward if NASA can certify that there is not a threat of revealing sensitive security information.
Excerpts from the white paper follow after the break.
Continue reading ‘China Expands Space Power Through International Cooperation’
Loading ...