China launches another 11 satellites for one of its mega-constellations
China today successfully placed another 11 satellites into orbit for one of its internet satellite constellations designed to compete with Starlink, its Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifting off from a launch platform off the eastern coast of China.
This was the fourth launch of satellites for Geely constellation. Though the rocket’s lower stages dropped into the South China Sea as well as the Pacific, doing no harm to habitable areas (as China routinely does when it launches from its interior spaceports), earlier this week the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., complained about China’s habit of not giving its neighbors sufficient warning prior to its coastal launches.
Marcos issued the statement after China launched its Long March 12 rocket on Monday [from its coastal Wenchang spaceport], which left debris within Philippine maritime territory. During an interview with the Philippine media delegation covering his state visit to India, the President said this was not the first time suspected Chinese rocket debris had ended up in Philippine waters.
“Well, it’s not the first time that this has happened. And, actually, if you look at the incidents, they did not commit any violations. There have been no casualties,” Marcos said. “We just wish that perhaps they could warn us a little earlier so that we know the path of the rocket, where the path is, and if they will release stages, where they will fall,” he added.
All par for the course for China. It not only doesn’t really care if it crashes rocket stages on the heads of its own people, it cares even less about dropping stages on neighboring countries.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
97 SpaceX
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 74.
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
China today successfully placed another 11 satellites into orbit for one of its internet satellite constellations designed to compete with Starlink, its Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifting off from a launch platform off the eastern coast of China.
This was the fourth launch of satellites for Geely constellation. Though the rocket’s lower stages dropped into the South China Sea as well as the Pacific, doing no harm to habitable areas (as China routinely does when it launches from its interior spaceports), earlier this week the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., complained about China’s habit of not giving its neighbors sufficient warning prior to its coastal launches.
Marcos issued the statement after China launched its Long March 12 rocket on Monday [from its coastal Wenchang spaceport], which left debris within Philippine maritime territory. During an interview with the Philippine media delegation covering his state visit to India, the President said this was not the first time suspected Chinese rocket debris had ended up in Philippine waters.
“Well, it’s not the first time that this has happened. And, actually, if you look at the incidents, they did not commit any violations. There have been no casualties,” Marcos said. “We just wish that perhaps they could warn us a little earlier so that we know the path of the rocket, where the path is, and if they will release stages, where they will fall,” he added.
All par for the course for China. It not only doesn’t really care if it crashes rocket stages on the heads of its own people, it cares even less about dropping stages on neighboring countries.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
97 SpaceX
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 74.
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
American private companies are launching more than twice what the China and Russian governments are launching combined!
108 V 52
Interesting.
And as a bonus Elon has apparently gotten over his billionaire hissy fit and is making nice with Trump. And Trump is amenable to it. A viable third American political party? I think not.
Curious if there is a business case for recovering Chinese salvage; I mean, if they’re going to deliver it . . .
Just remember this—even with NASA cuts, SpaceForce is helping to prop up NewSpace companies with more government money—not less.
Contrary to what anyone named Rand will tell you, pork isn’t spelled MSFC after all.
If a NewSpace firm survives due to Space Force—then it is little different from Chinese companies.
But always—and forever—pork is defined as money that goes to the other guy’s project.
Space Force will be spending quite a bit of money with NewSpace companies – particularly SpaceX. That’s because Space Force has decades of USAF stupidity to make up for and not a lot of time to do it. Golden Dome, to cite the paradigmatic example, is supposed to be at least at minimum viable product level within three years. Legacy aerospace simply has no ability to tackle such a project on such a schedule. It would have to start from scratch and would probably consume three years just in getting requirements defined and the contracts drawn up. NewSpace – particularly SpaceX – does have such capability as most of what is needed to implement Golden Dome is already extant in the form of Starlink.
Not all government spending qualifies as “pork.” Pork is, specifically, a term applicable to government spending that produces nothing useful and is done simply to benefit politically-favored contractors or government establishments in particular Congressional districts. SLS, Orion and Gateway are useless and expensive and benefit no one except OldSpace contractors and MSFC. Golden Dome will be extremely useful as well as decades overdue when it goes on-line.