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rockdog

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The Chinese Academy of Sciences topped the Nature Index 2021 Annual Tables

Superpowered science: charting China’s research rise
 

johnq

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China’s wants to replace the United States as the dominant power in space, a new report warned, and to hold onto this position the Pentagon should consider having the Space Force protect freedom of navigation and communications in space.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission called out China’s aim to replace the United States as the premier power in space in its annual report released Nov. 14.

“China’s government and military are determined to meet ambitious goals for space leadership, if not dominance, and China has connected its space program with its broader ambitions to become a terrestrial leader in political, economic, and military power,” the report said. “Beijing aims to establish a leading position in the future space-based economy and capture important sectors of the global commercial space industry, including promoting its space industry through partnerships under what it has termed the ‘Space Silk Road.’”

The commission calls for Congress to direct the National Space Council to develop a strategy to counter efforts by China and Russia and ensure the United States remains the preeminent space power. The commission also recommends that the space domain be more fully integrated into all policy, training and exercises.

China’s growing space industry is fueled by intellectual property theft, the commission argued. Those efforts are bolstered by Chinese investments in U.S. space ventures via front companies as well as Chinese partnerships with American space-related research, which help funnel intellectual property back to the Chinese state and its military.

Additionally, the report cited China’s state support of space startups and predatory pricing of space services as contributing to its growth in the space domain.


“China is well-positioned to assume a commanding role in a future space-based economy, as its steps to dominate the global commercial launch and satellite sectors through generous subsidies and other advantages have already threatened to hollow out the U.S. space industrial base,” read the report.

In order to understand the consequences of China becoming economically dominant in the space domain, the commission wants answers to a number of questions, like whether space-based mining of precious minerals is economically viable and how the U.S. military plans to protect commercial communications satellites from Chinese aggression. In addition to the aforementioned queries, the commission wants the report to provide answers on the strategic value of cislunar space, a plan for a space commodities exchange, an interagency strategy to streamline and strengthen supply chains, and a plan to strengthen cooperation with partners and allies in space.

On the military side, China has both developed counterspace weapons and adopted dangerously escalatory offensive tactics in the space domain, warns the commission, and views dominance of space as a priority in conflict.

In response, the commission recommends the Pentagon ensure U.S. Space Command and the imminent Space Force are responsible for protecting freedom of navigation and communications in space, similar to how the U.S. Navy protects navigation and communications in the maritime commons. The commission further endorses efforts to increase survivability, redundancy, rapid replacement and disaggregation of space efforts in the National Defense Authorization Act.

China is also working to degrade one of the United State’s primary advantages in space — its international partnerships. China has worked to promote its international leadership in space and plans to build its own space station to replace the International Space Station, replacing the United States as the go to partner for human spaceflight.

Because of this, the report asks Congress to push the Trump administration to actively participate in international space governance institutions and strengthen partnerships in the space domain.

The report comes on the heels of growing warning from the U.S. military of China’s ambitions for space. Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently said that China was playing a game of Go in space, effectively summarizing their strategy as an attempt to gain territory and prevent others from doing the same. Ashley’s comments in turn follow unclassified DIA reports on China and threats to space released earlier this year.
 

skywatcher

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A Long March 2D rocket launched Tianhui-1-04 satellites on 29 July 2021.
It is China's 25th launch of the year.
View attachment 102350
Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
An iSpace Hyperbola-1 rocket attempted an orbital launch but failed to reach SSO on 3 Aug 2021. The Chinese space launch startup iSpace was founded in 2016. It has conducted 3 orbital launches since 2019 but only one is successful.
It is China's 26th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
 

skywatcher

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An iSpace Hyperbola-1 rocket attempted an orbital launch but failed to reach SSO on 3 Aug 2021. The Chinese space launch startup iSpace was founded in 2016. It has conducted 3 orbital launches since 2019 but only one is successful.
It is China's 26th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
Maybe I am mistaken! Stay tuned!
 

skywatcher

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looks like the payload fairing did not separate normally but the upper stack still ended up in orbit. :bplease:
althought the paylaod is in orbit(not the target SSO), the launch is considered as a failure by iSpace.
 

skywatcher

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An iSpace Hyperbola-1 rocket attempted an orbital launch but failed to reach SSO on 3 Aug 2021. The Chinese space launch startup iSpace was founded in 2016. It has conducted 3 orbital launches since 2019 but only one is successful.
It is China's 26th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
A Long March 6 rocket launched KL- beta A/B satellites on 4 Aug 2021.
It is China's 27th launch of the year.
Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
0077Nzxhly1gt4zazz4vkj34802tcb2c.jpg

0077Nzxhly1gt543s70pcj31qm2lx7wh.jpg

00686eaKgy1gt4zqm52yhj30u00jwdnu.jpg
 

skywatcher

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A Long March 6 rocket launched KL- beta A/B satellites on 4 Aug 2021.
It is China's 27th launch of the year.
Coming up next:
A Long March 3B rocket will launch Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
View attachment 103478
View attachment 103479
View attachment 103480
A Long March 3B rocket launched Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
It is China's 28th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
A Long March 2C rocket will launch XX satellites on 17 Aug 2021.
 

skywatcher

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A Long March 3B rocket launched Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
It is China's 28th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
A Long March 2C rocket will launch XX satellites on 17 Aug 2021.
757dc9f5gy1gt6fcbq3ynj21vg2t6alg.jpg
 

skywatcher

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"921" China's next generation crewed rocket(A derived variant of Long March 5)
LTO: 27 t
005AvzvGgy1gtbfvsu303j30u01t5gud.jpg

00686eaKgy1gt8ejr9jsyj31z4140dwl.jpg
 

skywatcher

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"921" China's next generation crewed rocket(A derived variant of Long March 5)
LTO: 27 t
View attachment 104088
View attachment 104089
China is working on a lander for human moon missions

HELSINKI — China’s main spacecraft maker is developing a human landing system for lunar missions, according to an account of an official academic visit.

The brief news report from Xiamen University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics July 1 (Chinese) names individuals leading projects pertinent to China’s human lunar landing plans and notably refers to the landing project as a “national strategy”.

China is already known to be developing and testing new launch vehicles and a new-generation spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the moon. A lunar landing and ascent system has one of the missing key components of a human lunar landing architecture.

The report names Yang Lei as “chief commander of the crewed lunar landing vehicle system” at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a subordinate to the state-owned space and defense contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC).

Yang was accompanied for the visit to Xiamen University by the project’s deputy chief commander and another involved in CAST’s new-generation crew spacecraft developed for deep space journeys. Other CASC subsidiaries are working on a new human-rated launch vehicle.

No details of the lander were provided during the meeting, in which current progress and future plans for human moon landings were presented. A number of slides were published but were intentionally blurred out. An illustration from a September 2020 Chinese space conference provides information on one concept and was presented as part of a moon landing wider architecture.

Zhou Yanfei, deputy general designer of China’s human spaceflight program, told Chinese media during the conference last year that, along with progress on launchers and spacecraft, development of a lander, life support, mission experience and ground support capacity for operations beyond low Earth orbit are all required before crewed lunar missions are possible.

China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission launched last November used a lunar orbit rendezvous mission profile. The complexity of the mission was seen in part as a test of technologies needed to get astronauts back from the lunar surface and docked with an orbiting spacecraft for the journey home.

The characterization of the human moon landings as a national strategy appears to be unprecedented. While indicating some level of national support for the project, its significance remains ambiguous.

However, a human lunar landing project was not specifically identified in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) approved in March.

China will later in 2021 release a fifth space white paper detailing priorities for the five years ahead. The document could indicate and detail further plans and support for lunar landings. Ongoing projects indicate China is gradually accumulating the capabilities, experience and expertise to conduct such missions.

Development of a new rocket for sending crew into trans-lunar injection which utilizes existing Long March 5 technologies and upgraded engines, along with progress already made on a spacecraft with deep space capabilities, had led to the suggestion that China may be capable of launching circumlunar crewed missions already in the 2020s.

Wu Yanhua, deputy head of CNSA, declined to provide a date for a potential first Chinese crewed lunar landing when asked during an ensuing press conference.
 

skywatcher

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Containers carrying the Long March 7 rocket components arrived at Hainan island for assembly in preparation for cargo delivery mission to CSS on 20 Sept 2021
006CPdF6ly1gthjj00ln9j60zk0o7djd02.jpg
 

skywatcher

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A Long March 3B rocket launched Zhongxing-2E telecommunication satellite on 6 Aug 2021.
It is China's 28th launch of the year.
A Long March 4B rocket launched Tianhui Group 2 satellites on 19 Aug 2021.
It is China's 29th launch of the year.

Coming up next:
1. CSS EVA mission next week.
2. A Long March 4C rocket will launch Gaofen-5 Group 2 satellites on 6 Sept 2021.
3. A Galactic Energy Ceres-1 rocket will launch Fangzhou-2 satellites on 10 Sept 2021.
4. A Long March 2C rocket will launch Yaogan-32 Group 2 satellites on 12 Sept 2021.
5. A Long March 7 rocket will launch Tianzhou-3 cargo resupply ship to dock with the Chinese Space Station(CSS) on 20 Sept 2021.

00686eaKgy1gtlrl0zuz2j60u00kdaj802.jpg
 

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