Reusable
spacecraft [7/10/98]
Foxtrot : Is China working on any reusable spacecraft? or
at least some sort of concept of this? Maybe a hyperplane
of soem sort? the Indians are working on a hyperplane
called AVATAR... why not us?
[7/10/98] Chen Lan : Earliest reports about China is developing a
reusable launch vehicle is since 80s. I also heard that
the shuttle cockpit design R&D was underway in
Shanghai when I was in China later 80s. Recent reports
suggest that China is defenitely developing a shuttle. I
bet China's RLV/shutle will fly before indian's.
Significant
space events [7/12/98]
vc : 1) Russia launched a satellite from a submarine
using a SS-23 missile, comments? A very cheap way to
launch a satellite.
2) Japan did a two-satellite rendezvous and launched a
spacecraft to Mars. Japan's technology level is quite
high.
[7/13/98] Chen Lan : Russia's submarine launch is impressive but its
payload capacity is limited to no more than 500kg to
200km LEO and 200kg to 700km LEO, which will have no
impact on comsat launch market of both GEO and Iridium
type LEO systems.
Japenese made great achievement indeed. They will be a
major competitor of China. In fact, U.S. and Russia can
not be matched by China in near future but Europe and
Japan will. China, Japen and European have similar future
space projects, such as manned program, deep space
mission and commercail projects. We will see a space race
in next decade between them. That's interesting and
exciting.
[7/14/98] vc : One issue is Japan cannot be competitive in
commercial launching with the current price tag
But Japan is advanced in electronics, so a Mars mission
is doable
[7/16/98] Chen Lan : Agree. I think thier satellite technology
(largely based on E-tech) will challenge American and
their commercial market leadship in next century.
Teledsic
mammoth project [7/14/98]
vc : Which rocket in Chinese inventory may be
suitable for launching Teledsic satellites? Even CZ2C/SD
is not enough (300 sats in 1.5 years)
[7/16/98] Chen Lan : It depends on the role: as a major launcher or
only for backup launch. If it's the latter (like Iridium
launch), CZ-2C/SD is suitable(I can not find the T-sat
weight, but I don't think it will weigh much more than
Iridium). As the major launcher, CZ-2E will be a good
candidate (we can recall that it had been considered to
launch 12 Globalstars at one launch). In fact, after the
merger of Motorola Celestri, Teledesic will most likely
abandon Starsem Soyuz. What they are considering now is
Ariane 5, Proton, Delta 3 and Long March. I think LM is
very possible to be selected, if no bans of satellite
export by U.S. government later this year.
[7/19/98] vc : How to launch 12 sats in one rocket?
[7/21/98] Chen Lan : You will see Zenit launch 12 satellites soon. 12
satellites are installed on a dispenser. After launched
into space, the satellites will be released one by one.
You will see how a Zenit 2 rocket launch 12 GlobalStar
satellites in this August.
Should
I ask this here? [7/14/98]
vc : Why US Congress targets only Loral, Hughes but
not Lockheed Martin or Motorola?
If I should not ask this here, say so :)
[7/14/98] Chen Lan : Motorola IS probed now! See following letter I
copyied from sci.space.policy. Lockmart will not be
survived I believe.
(long letter deleted)
Yet
another article on Smart Dispenser [7/14/98]
The Washington Times : (long article deleted)
FYI:
Chinese Deep Space Missions(gb) [7/18/98]
military forum : (An article in Chinese on Chinese deep space
missions based on the speaking by CAS member Mr. Wang
Jixi.Highlights:
- China already have the launch capacity for lunar oribt
or landing missions
- China has not made any decision so far on lunar
missions
- For the long term view, China will eventaully land on
the moon and go to the red planet
- China is weak on space communication but strong on
re-entry technology)
Question: what rocket is useful for this mission??
[7/19/98] Chen Lan : China has unmanned moon and plenet launch
capacity. I estimated a Long March 3B can lift the 5
tonnes class spacecraft to the moon. Long March 2C/2D or
4 can also launch small probes. They are comparible with
Japanese M-5 and American Delta-2 and Athena, which
launched Hope(Mars), Mars Path Finder, Mars Global
Surveyor, and Lunar probe recently.
I agree that China's weakness is in space communication.
I think China may should cooperate with Taiwan or
Singapore in future deep space mission (a Great China
space program).
[7/19/98] vc : Why is space communication difficult?
I think we just forget about cooperation with Taiwan
or Singapore!
Looks like CZ3B is on track.
Non-Chinese
space questions [7/19/98]
vc : 1) Which rocket was responsible for launching
"ash of dead people"? Did one exist?
2) SSN-23 launch -- was that launched from a submerged
sub or not?
[7/20/98] Chen Lan : 1) "ash of dead people": Orbital
Sciences Corporation's Pegasus XL Air-launch solid rokect
-- from a L-1011 mother plane. Such kind of launch will
continue.
2) SSN-23 launch -- Yes, it was actually launched from a
submerine for the first time in hostory. The missile was
renamed Shtil'-1N as a space launcher.
[7/19/98] vc : a newspaper said villagers living around Xichang
will be "evacuated" before each launch, just
FYI
Reusable
LAUNCH VEHICLES [7/19/98]
vc : Will China try one of this? (looks like the
Aussies will have one soon) Or China thinks the LV's are
cheap enough to beat every other body's :)
[7/21/98] Chen Lan : You mean Kistler-1? It is actually not did by
Aussies but use thier launch site.
China is reportly developing a small shuttle but not such
kind of RLV. I don't think China will developing two RLVs
at the same time. K-1's launch cost will be lower than
current US/European launch system and at the same price
level of Long March. It will competite Long March in LEO
market.
My point of view is: if China has no breakthrough in
developing new low cost launch systems in 5 years, it
will lose the market.
Chen,
please read [7/21/98]
vc : Are you "Merlion" on another forum? :)
You forget to include your article on your homepage!
[7/22/98] Chen Lan : That's becuase it's informal information (quoted
from the email) and the authur have not released them to
public (only among a small group so far). Maybe you will
see his article on formal publications in few month with
more details.
Price
tags FYI [7/21/98]
vc : Read this from another site:
It said launching from a Delta -2 or Ariane 4 costs about
US$115M, Proton US$65M. It did not tell how much is CZ3B
but CZ2E was listed at US$40M, so I believe the price tag
is similar.
[7/22/98] Chen Lan : Thanks for your information.
CZ-2E launch only cover LEO (200km) orbit. The satellite
is sent to GTO by a kick motor, which is not included in
40M. As I know, Chinese has adjusted the price so a CZ-3B
launch will definitely cost more then 40M. Plus the cost
of upper stage, around 60M is reasonable.
What
happen to Ziyuan-1? [7/31/98]
Huang Jianan : Can you provide the latest info on the launch
which is supposed to occur on 30/07/98 ? I notice you
figure it is going to be somewhere around August. Is
there an official site,besides your unofficial one, that
provides info on China's aerospace activities? BTW, you
have done a good job. Keep it up.
[7/31/98] Chen Lan : Ziyuan-1's launch date was provided by NASA. No
more information so far. It is still possible to be
launched in early August. After then, Taiyuan will
prepare the Iridium launch. So another possibility is
after August.
There are some official Chinese space web sites, such as
CALT and CAST. See my 'links' page. But these sites have
only very limited information. There are no official
launch schedule on the Internet, as I known.
