China launches two GPS-type satellites with Long March 3BThe new colonial movement: China yesterday launched two GPS-type satellites with its Long March 3B rocket.
The leaders in the 2018 launch race:
23 China
15 SpaceX
8 Russia
6 ULA
5 Arianespace (Europe)
The national rankings China now leads the U.S. 23 to 22.
Update: With this launch China has set a new national record for launches in a single year.
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.
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The new colonial movement: China yesterday launched two GPS-type satellites with its Long March 3B rocket.
The leaders in the 2018 launch race:
23 China
15 SpaceX
8 Russia
6 ULA
5 Arianespace (Europe)
The national rankings China now leads the U.S. 23 to 22.
Update: With this launch China has set a new national record for launches in a single year.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
The launch schedule that I looked at shows only three more launches are planned or announced by China, meaning that China will not make their hoped-for 40 launches this year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/ (As I write this, the launch schedule still shows the 24 August Long March launch as a scheduled launch.)
SpaceX shows 11 more launches scheduled for this year, including two Falcon Heavies and their unmanned Crew Dragon test flight. This means that SpaceX will fall short of their hoped-for 28 launches, but only by two. They seem to be ramping up their launch cadence nicely.
Northrop Grumman (the late Orbital ATK) shows three launches scheduled, and ULA shows four.
If all these scheduled launches happen this year then the final tally for U.S. vs China will be:
U.S. leading China 40 to 26, with China and SpaceX tied at 26 each.
By the way, India, Japan, and New Zealand have more launches scheduled, so they should start to appear on Robert’s leaders list, this fall, as well as Northrop Grumman.
Edward: The Spaceflightnow launch list of future Chinese launches is very incomplete. China does not provide a lot of information about many of its launches. They also tend to concentrate many of their launches in the fall.
I will not be surprised at all if their total is close to 40, despite having only 3 more launches listed for the rest of the year.
Robert,
As with their concentrated launches at the beginning of this year, it would take another increase in launch cadence to get to 40 launches, this year. This should keep the “race” exciting for the rest of the year, as their current launch rate is a little low for reaching their 40-launch goal.
It is too bad that they are a bit secretive with their launch schedule, but it is not surprising.