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.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
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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.