Wenchang – Behind The Black

March 29, 2024 Quick space links

March 29, 2024 3:25 pm Robert Zimmerman

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

JPL releases video that allows viewers to explore a 360 panorama of Curiosity’s location in Gediz Vallis

Makes a nice complement to the many Curiosity images and overview maps I post.

20th anniversary of Aviation Week cover that asked, “Can tiny SpaceX rock Boeing?”

Wudda think? Did it?

Launch tower at the pseudo-commercial launchpad at China’s Wenchang coastal spaceport nearing completion

China is reserving this pad for its pseudo-commercial companies, thus allowing it to maintain full control over what they do.

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Launch failure for China’s new Long March 7A rocket

March 16, 2020 1:20 pm Robert Zimmerman

The first launch attempt of China’s newly upgraded Long March 7 rocket, dubbed the 7A, ended in failure today.

As is usual for China, very little concrete information was released, about the payload or the failure.

State news agency confirmed failure (in Chinese) just under two hours after launch, with no cause nor nature of the failure stated.

The Long March 7A is an effort by China to replace the use of rockets that use dangerous propellants and are launched in the interior of the country, sometimes dumping their first stages in habitable regions.

The Long March 7A is a variant of the standard Long March 7, which has flown twice. A 2017 mission to test the Tianzhou refueling spacecraft with Tiangong-2 space lab was its most recent activity. The launcher uses RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellant and could replace older models using toxic propellants.

It is also intended to launch from their new coastal spaceport in Wenchang. It did this today, though unsuccessfully.

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China’s biggest rocket ready for shipment

August 18, 2016 9:30 am Robert Zimmerman

The competition heats up: China’s newest and biggest rocket ever, the Long March 5, is about to be picked up by the cargo ship specially designed to carry it from its manufacturing site to China’s new Wenchang spaceport.

The rocket’s first test launch is currently scheduled for October.

Long March 7 heads to spaceport

May 9, 2016 9:01 am Robert Zimmerman

The competition heats up: The first of China’s new generation of rockets, Long March 7, is now on its way to its spaceport for its first launch next month.

The first flight of the 53-metre-tall Long March 7 will take place in late June, according to CASC’s Yang Baohua, and will test the design and performance indicators. The 600 tonne, 3.35m diameter rocket will carry a scaled-down version of a new Chinese re-entry capsule for human spaceflight, chief designer of China’s human space program Zhou Jianping revealed in March.

The article provides some good detailed information about China’s new rockets, noting that this rocket has been designed to launch manned and cargo spacecraft into orbit, making it the equivalent of Russia’s Soyuz rocket. The more powerful Long March 5, set for launch later this year when it will put China’s next space station prototype into orbit, will be their equivalent of Russia’s Proton. In both cases, however, they will be better than Russia’s rockets, more advanced and upgraded with greater capabilities.

The article also makes note of China’s new Wenchang spaceport on the coast, which took six years to build.