China’s Long March 2D rocket launches Earth observation satellite
China yesterday used its Long March 2D rocket to successfully launch an Earth observation satellite plus two smallsats into orbit.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
20 China
13 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. still leads China 21 to 20 in the national rankings.
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China yesterday used its Long March 2D rocket to successfully launch an Earth observation satellite plus two smallsats into orbit.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
20 China
13 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. still leads China 21 to 20 in the national rankings.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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:
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Wiki tells me that the previous 2D launched as late as August 6th. With 3½ tons to LEO it has about half the payload capacity of a Soyuz launcher. So a bit too small for launching traditional sats to GEO, but good for Earth observation sats in low polar orbit.
So, is “Earth observation satellite” chinese-communist double-speak, for surveillance-satellite?
@wayne
They might have good reasons to take a look at the catastrophic floods in recent weeks that made some their damns burst, and other damns tremble. After having lost most of their crops, and previously most of their pigs in a disease (China is the by far largest pork producer in the world), they are probably also interested in watching what’s left of their agricultural sector. Even in the best of seasons China is dependent on food imports.
What defeated Germany in ww1? Oh yeah, food shortages.