China completes first launch of its Long March 12 rocket
China today successfully launched for the first time its new Long March 12 rocket, lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport and placing “two technology test satellites” into orbit.
The two-stage rocket, powered by burning kerosene and liquid oxygen, is notable as the first 3.8-metre-wide rocket launched so far by China, said Wu Jialin, an engineer with the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under CASC, which developed the spacecraft.
Most Chinese rockets have a diameter of 3.35 meters, Wu told a press conference on site shortly after the launch was announced successful. “A wider body means the rocket can hold about 30 per cent more propellant, giving it much enhanced carrying capacity,” he said.
For comparison, the Falcon 9 has a diameter of 3.7 meters, though its payload fairing is wider. China intends to use this new rocket to launch its own large satellite constellations to compete with SpaceX.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
56 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 84, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 103.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
China today successfully launched for the first time its new Long March 12 rocket, lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport and placing “two technology test satellites” into orbit.
The two-stage rocket, powered by burning kerosene and liquid oxygen, is notable as the first 3.8-metre-wide rocket launched so far by China, said Wu Jialin, an engineer with the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under CASC, which developed the spacecraft.
Most Chinese rockets have a diameter of 3.35 meters, Wu told a press conference on site shortly after the launch was announced successful. “A wider body means the rocket can hold about 30 per cent more propellant, giving it much enhanced carrying capacity,” he said.
For comparison, the Falcon 9 has a diameter of 3.7 meters, though its payload fairing is wider. China intends to use this new rocket to launch its own large satellite constellations to compete with SpaceX.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
124 SpaceX
56 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 84, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 103.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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