Rockets parts felling in China. YG-30-01 rocket China

[J20!]

Since the first launch of three signals intelligence Yaogan 30 series satellites in September 2017, 12 of these satellites have now been put into orbit with the 4th launch occurring on the 25th January 2018. Tis marks the 5th successful Chinese space launch of 2018.

1st: September 2017
2nd : November 2017
3rd: December 2017
4th: January 2018

Every launch carries a set of three electromagnetic signals monitoring satellites that follow the same orbit in a close formation. All four follow a low orbit with an inclination favoring a high revisit frequency on the South China Sea, the Phillipine Sea and the Indian Ocean.

http://www.eastpendulum.com/4e-triplet-militaire-yg-30-mis-en-orbit

4th YG-30 military triplet set in orbit
SPACE

5 space launches in 17 days, all in one month of January. Here is the temporary assessment that we can retain for the beginning of 2018, which is already very busy in Chinese space activities. Indeed, China put into orbit this Thursday, January 25 its 4th and probably the last military triplet YG-30 , which would be dedicated to the electronic intelligence, as well as a small satellite NanoSat-1A, thanks to a launcher CZ-2C in the Xichang Space Center (XSLC).

Note that the previous Chinese launch took place just 6 days ago in another space center, the Jiuquan (JSLC), where 6 satellites were placed in their target orbit using a CZ-11 rocket.

According to the plan announced in late 2017 by the Chinese aerospace group CASC, designer of Long March rockets, the largest aerospace manufacturer in the country will lead "more than 30 launches" in 2018, while the counter stopped at 18 shots as of December 31, 2017 and China has never made more than 22 launches in a year in its history.

If we take into account the Kuaizhou launchers of another Chinese group CASIC as well as the small Chinese players who should also offer their vectors, we could get closer to more than 40 shots in 2018.

But let's go back to the launch of the YG-30 military triplet.



The start
Developed by the Chinese Academy of Launch Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of the Chinese aerospace group CASC, the CZ-2C is a two-stage liquid propellant launcher specializing in low-Earth-orbit (LEO) and sun-synchronous orbit launches (SSO).

It is an "old" generation launcher using hypergolic propellants, which is 43.72 meters high and 245 tons on take-off, and capable of placing up to 3,300 kg in Circular LEO orbit 300 km × 29 ° from the Xichang Space Center (XSLC).

Thirteen Chinese satellites with return pods , US Iridium satellites , as well as several Chinese military and experimental satellites have already been launched thanks to the CZ-2C, which now has 42 hits on 43 flight missions made public.

The launcher's only failure was on August 18, 2011, during the launch of the SJ-11-04 military satellite . A mechanical failure of the 2nd floor would be questioned.

The CZ-2C is also used as a carrier rocket for various military engines, such as the DF-ZF hypersonic glider for its last seven tests. Which is not surprising in itself when we know that it is derived directly from the Chinese ICBM missile DF-5 .

The launch of the triplet YG-30 Group 04 (遥感 30 号 04 组) took place this Thursday, January 25th at 13: 39: 04.986 local time precisely, on the launch pad n ° 3 of XSLC. This firing point that is used to accommodate larger rockets such as the CZ-3 will remain in this technical state, configured to support the CZ-2C, at least until the Chinese New Year in February for make other launches

According to a statement from the CALT Institute, the CZ-2C launcher will be used this year in several launch missions and at different space centers. The text cited, for example, the French-Chinese oceanic satellite CFOSAT ( Chinese-French Oceanic SATellite ) and a Pakistan remote sensing satellite.

The CZ-2C is also the rocket that has already been launched from the three Chinese space centers TSLC, JSLC and XSLC (but not yet at the WSLC, the new and 4th Chinese space center on the island of Hainan).








As with the first triplet launch in September 2017, CZ-2C engineers designed a new under-head bracket to fix the three satellites. This new configuration will be integrated elsewhere in the "V4.0" plan that the CALT institute has planned to extend the already very long career of the rocket.

The aim is to further reduce the CZ-2C preparation cycle and makes him a reliable vector, responsive and very cheap for small satellites, including those that are too large for new launchers solid propellant as CZ- 11 and KZ-1A .

Content of the XSLC center's geographical location entering the high-altitude high-wind season, the engineers also reprogrammed the CNG system to alleviate this problem, as well as other technical adjustments due to the higher moisture content in a very stormy region.

A single message to aircrew (NOTAM) was created to signal a fallout area located in the very center of Guizhou Province, which is very mountainous. The same zone was created at the launch of the Group 03 triplet at the end of December last year.

A0262 / 18
Q) ZPKM / QRTCA / IV / BO / W / 000/999 / 2647N10713E015
A) ZPKM B) 1801250531 C) 1801250551
E) A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY:
N263510E1072251-N264300E1065708-N265820E1070259-N265028E1072844
BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: GND-UNL. ALL ACFT SHALL BE FORBIDDEN
TO THE FLY INTO THE RESTRICTED AREA.
F) GND G) UNL


The fallout zone (in yellow) and the flight path of the CZ-2C launcher (Image: East Pendulum)

According to NORAD data, the three YG-30 satellites were injected in an orbit of 594 km × 602 km × 35 °, with a period of 96.63 min.

Another satellite, NanoSat-1A , or also known as CX-6-06, has also been placed in orbit as well as the last stage of the CZ-2C launcher.

YAOGAN-30 K
1 43169U 18011A 18026.75665388 .00000001 00000-0 28563-5 0 9999
2 43169 34.9952 175.6449 0005147 276.5557 83.3967 14.89986964 209

YAOGAN-30 L
1 43170U 18011B 18026.82326461 .00001834 00000-0 18760-3 0 9996
2 43170 34.9940 175.2411 0007772 286.8428 73.1433 14.90364846 217

YAOGAN-30 M
1 43171U 18011C 18026.82319911 -.00000834 00000-0 -81230-4 0 9993
2 43171 34.9927 175.2424 0007896 285.1054 74.8785 14.90422409 219

CZ-2C R / B
1 43172U 18011D 18026.82316809 .00074510 00000-0 74127-2 0 9992
2 43172 34.9936 175.2412 0008310 286.8609 73.1184 14.90480123 215

2018-011E
1 43173U 18011E 18026.79045465 -.00002630 00000-0 -79278-4 0 9996
2 43173 34.9670 174.9289 0151469 24.4289 336.3511 15.22165677 233



YG-30, a new SIGINT constellation with a high revisit?
Just like the first three triplets launched in September, November and December 2017, this new YG-30 Group 04 is designed by the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites (SECM), a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It should be noted that the SECM gave another name to these satellites, Chuang Xin 5 (CX-5, 创新 5 号), which means "Innovation 5" in Chinese.


The 10th to the 12th satellite of the constellation of wiretaps (?) YG-30 (Image: CCTV)

It was initially thought that these would be SIGINT reconnaissance satellites to determine the position of naval fleets based on their electromagnetic emissions, and to follow the movements of these, like the other Chinese trios YG-9 , YG-16 , YG-17 , YG-20 and YG-25 , launched between 2010 and 2014 and placed in 1,100 km × 1,100 km × 63 ° orbits.

But our colleague Clément noticed that the YG-30 Group 01 and Group 02 triplet satellites do not fly in tight formation , spaced a few dozen kilometers apart, but rather placed at 120 ° from each other, too far apart to provide triangulation of signals.

On the other hand, the small inclination of these new satellites suggests that they are rather dedicated to monitoring low latitude areas (N35 ° to S35 °), such as the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea. for example, and will increase the revisit period and thus improve the effectiveness of monitoring these prioritized regions.

Clement's calculations show that with three triplets, therefore, a total of nine satellites, 19 passes per 24-hour period can be made for a site at the latitude of Taipei (25 ° North). And these are passes with less than 45 ° of misalignment, which means that the angle of view is relatively close to the vertical and therefore the passes are usable for an imaging satellite. If we take into account a maximum misalignment of 85 °, which remains exploitable for a satellite of wiretapping, then there are up to 54 passes per 24h, and the holes in the cover provided by the constellation last plus 22 minutes. So there is almost constant coverage.


Estimated coverage of the triplets YG-30 (Image: satelliteobservation.wordpress.com)

But we should expect future evidence to confirm whether these three YG-30 satellite groups are actually satellites dedicated to "technical experiments on the electromagnetic environment in orbit", which is a euphemism for military wiretapping, or imaging satellites as suggested by some analysts.



Historical statistics
Statistically, the launch of the YG-30 Group 04 is the Chinese 5ᵉ space launch in 2018, the 45ᵉ for the CZ-2C launcher, and the 265ᵉ for the Long March launchers family.

For now, the Long March rockets of the group CASC total 254 successes and 11 failures, a success rate of 95.85%.

Here is the chart tracking all Chinese space launches since the first in 1970, including those not performed by Long March launchers -


Chinese Space Launches Tracking Chart - Date: 2018-01-25

Henri K

 

[Armand2REP]

This is the aftermath downrange following a Chinese Long March 3B launch from Xichang early Saturday. And that yellow smoke is very toxic hypergolic propellant.

 

[MIDKNIGHT FENERIR-00]

A falling rocket booster just completely flattened a building in China
Despite how easy it is to prevent, China continues to allow launch debris to rain down on rural towns and threaten people’s safety.

by Neel V. Patel
Nov 27, 2019

A Long March 3B launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
XINHUA

Last Saturday, China launched a pair of satellites into orbit from its Xichang Satellite Launch Center. On social media, however, the main event was what happened on Earth: a booster from the launch smashed right into a building in the country’s rural south-central region. No one was injured, but videos and photos of the incident showed wreckage left in the booster’s wake, with toxic rocket fuel evaporating.

This is the aftermath downrange following a Chinese Long March 3B launch from Xichang early Saturday. And that yellow smoke is very toxic hypergolic propellant. Source: https://t.co/VEh5X8Ors0pic.twitter.com/22IVIpyJOk

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) November 23, 2019
It’s the latest incident in China’s long history with falling rocket parts causing destruction below. The most infamous crash occurred in 1996, when the first Long March 3B launch saw the rocket veer off course and crash into a village, killing an unknown number of people (possibly hundreds, by some Western estimates).

：https://t.co/vY0CEN4CFYpic.twitter.com/Rdyq4fOMxI

— LaunchStuff (@LaunchStuff) November 23, 2019
“Any time you have stuff going up, there’s a possibility it’s going to come down where you don’t plan for it,” says Victoria Samson at the Secure World Foundation. “So there’s a reason why you don’t fire over populated land.” That’s why most countries launch over water.

So why doesn’t China? “This entire issue is down to geography,” says Thomas Roberts, a former aerospace security fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All three of China’s main spaceports are located in the mainland, including the Xichang site. They all save money by flying missions east (which requires less fuel to get into space), but that route takes them over vulnerable populations.

severe organ failure or cancer), the wreckage could pollute nearby rivers and streams used for irrigation and drinking water. Launches from the Soviet Union’s old Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, built in 1955, have caused more than 2,500 tons of debris to rain down on the surrounding region, leading to health problems for thousands.

So the issue isn’t new, but the space industry is expanding rapidly. “The more launches you have, the more chances you have for something to go wrong,” says Samson.

Luckily, the solutions aren’t complicated—they just require political will. China can launch over the water if it wants, through its spaceport on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea. Operational since 2014, it’s been seldom used because of launch failures and a less developed infrastructure. But these issues are fixable with enough investment.

China could also just change its flight paths. For example, Israel’s Palmachim Airbase can’t launch to the east because of obvious geopolitical conflicts. So it sends rockets over the Mediterranean Sea and through the Strait of Gibraltar. This requires putting a satellite in a retrograde orbit—one that moves in the opposite direction of Earth’s rotation. This requires much more fuel, but it entirely avoids populated areas.

And some emerging technologies might enable rockets to fly over populated areas more safely. Grid fins (lattice structures that can slightly modify control and speed) and parafoil features (aluminum foils that work like kites or parachutes), like those SpaceX uses, could help steer falling rocket boosters to vacant lands. Roberts thinks AI could one day be used to better assess downrange risks to communities before launch. One proposal led by SpaceX calls for building a flight corridor heading south that would fly rockets over populated areas as long as they can demonstrate a perfectly functional automated abort feature.

There’s one very cheap tool that could increase pressure on China and other groups to take steps to mitigate launch debris hazards: social media. Weibo and Twitter helped make images and videos of the latest crash go viral––a massive boon to the poor, rural victims, who are rarely seen or heard.