China launches three more military reconnaissance satellites
China today launched three more military reconnaissance satellites with its Long March 2C rocket.
The race for the most launches in 2017 is tightening, with China coming up the rear.
17 Russia
16 SpaceX
13 China
The US itself has a comfortable lead with 27 total launches.
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China today launched three more military reconnaissance satellites with its Long March 2C rocket.
The race for the most launches in 2017 is tightening, with China coming up the rear.
17 Russia
16 SpaceX
13 China
The US itself has a comfortable lead with 27 total launches.
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.
Tomorrow (Monday) marks one week from the planned launch of SpaceX CRS-13 from the newly repaired SLC-40. It will be interesting to see if they manage to successfully complete the static test fire on the first attempt.
That will bring them to 17, with Zuma and the FH demo waiting on the east coast and Iridium NEXT Flight 4 (NET Dec. 22) waiting on the west coast.
I’ve not heard if the potential problems (whatever they are) with Zuma’s fairing are also a concern for the Iridium launch.
Better living through military reconnaissance satellites.
In about 16 hours Soyuz will launch from Vostochny. The second to do (1st was in April 2016), I think. And the same week another Soyuz from Baikonur.
Hi Bob,
Is it really fair to compare SpaceX (although subsidized, still a private company) with two countries?
Richard: Yup, it certainly isn’t fair. In fact, it is downright embarrassing, specifically for countries like China and Russia, who are getting their pants beaten by a single private company in the U.S.
Freedom works. Private enterprise works. Individual achievement works. These principles, fundamental to the creation of the United States, always work. SpaceX is just proving this once more.
The SpaceX CRS-13 launch date has just slipped four days to Friday, December 8. Any reason has not yet been public announced.
SpaceX’s 22 December Iridium NEXT-4 launch is on track and not affected by the fairing issues delaying the Zuma launch.
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/11/iridium-next-4-december-launch-vandenberg/
Richard,
You may think (or wish) so, but SpaceX is not subsidized. It has contracts with government(s?), but a government contract is not a subsidy.
Arianespace, however, is subsidized, because it receives money from government to make up for annual cash flow shortfalls.
(By the way: ULA is not subsidized, either. It has the equivalent of two contracts with the US government. One for launching government payloads and another for maintaining the launch pads. Many people confuse the maintenance as a subsidy, but it is the way that the government reduces the launch costs by assuring ULA that it will not go into bankruptcy due to slow launch years, thus ULA need not overcharge for each launch in order to assure solvency.)