China launches communications satellite for space effort
Using a Long March 3C rocket China today successfully launched a communications satellite for use by its manned space missions and its space station, similar to the TDRS satellites used by NASA for similar purposes.
This satellite is the fifth such satellite launched, and is likely intended to enhance communications between the ground and China’s new space station.
No word on where the first stage crashed, or whether it landed near habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
21 China
20 SpaceX
11 Russia
3 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. still leads China 29 to 21 in the national rankings.
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Using a Long March 3C rocket China today successfully launched a communications satellite for use by its manned space missions and its space station, similar to the TDRS satellites used by NASA for similar purposes.
This satellite is the fifth such satellite launched, and is likely intended to enhance communications between the ground and China’s new space station.
No word on where the first stage crashed, or whether it landed near habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
21 China
20 SpaceX
11 Russia
3 Northrop Grumman
The U.S. still leads China 29 to 21 in the national rankings.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Looking at the flight path. So not only do the Chinese people have to worry about the first stage crashing into some town, they have to worry about the boosters, the fairings, and the second stage. Three areas within the PRC where sections of the rocket will come down and the fourth is east of Taiwan, R.O.C. into the ocean.
I am surprised they haven’t dropped a stage right on Taiwan.
Bob, I’m on iPhone and couldn’t access a search function, so apologies if you’ve covered this, but an update on Chang’e 6. It’s another sample recovery mission.
https://www.space.com/china-chang-e-6-moon-sample-return-preparations