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China launches another remote sensing satellite; crashes 1st stage near homes

The new colonial movement: China today used its Long March 4D rocket to launch another remote sensing satellite.

UPDATE: It appears the first stage booster crashed near a populated area. Footage of the crash can be seen here. Note that the red smoke indicates very toxic materials. Anyone who goes close risks serious health problems.

The leaders in the 2020 launch race:

22 China
15 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
4 Europe (Arianespace)

In the national rankings the U.S. still leads China 24 to 22.

Conscious Choice cover

Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!

 

From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.

 
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.  
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.

 

“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.

 

All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.

 

Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.

5 comments

  • Frank Solomon

    Apparently, enough of it hit the ground near the launch area to cause some big issues:

    https://www.space.com/china-launches-gaofen-11-satellite-rocket-crash.html

    Aside from the problems for the neighbors, a military officer might see something like this and decide that a foreign nation just attacked mainland China. Coastal launches tend to avoid all this . . .

  • Frank Solomon: Thank you! Post now updated.

  • Pat

    Not surprised, as those early Long March rockets were essentially monkey copies of the Titan II, which used hypergolic fuel. And toxic does not begin to cover it.

    I had a friend (of blessed memory) who worked on Project Apollo through Apollo 12. He told me when they would be working around the Saturn V/Apollo CSM stack on the pad when the CSM was fueled prior to launch, they had to wear special protective suits in case of a leak with the hypergolics that were used in the Apollo CSM/LM. He said that you were literally hermetically sealed in with these suits, and God help you if you had a case of, um, gas while wearing it. But that is how nasty hydrazine fuels can be.

  • Captain Emeritus

    It is incredulous to me, a Chinese peasant can catch a falling rocket booster on video, meanwhile millions of phones and security cams around LAX, can’t see a guy, flying a jet pack, down final approach amongst the airliner traffic. ?

  • Jeff Wright

    I have a grudging respect for China. Unlike Boeing, they show no fear—

    No fear of hypergolics: debris crashing near school kids? We can make more.

    Darkseid approves

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