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China’s Long March 3B launches radar satellite

China's spaceports
China’s spaceports

China early today used its Long March 3B two-stage rocket (plus four strap-on boosters) to put a radar satellite into geosynchronous orbit, lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southern interior China.

The orbit required the rocket to travel almost due east, which means the first stage and all four boosters crashed over China’s eastern heavily populated provinces, as shown on the map to the right. All use toxic hypergolic fuels. No word if the stages landed on any cities, as China’s communist government does without any qualms.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

55 SpaceX
34 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India

American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 63 to 34, and the entire world combined 63 to 56. SpaceX by itself now trails the entire world (excluding American companies) 55 to 56.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

2 comments

  • GaryMike

    I traveled China for a month in 1982.

    It was a new possible thing to do so.

    I visited the Beijing planetarium. One of their exhibit halls featured high-wall murals of some-onenauts on the moon.

    No a single US flag or patch in sight.

    Chins did it! The message.

    Not long ago, China created SpaceX Starship clone visuals with Chinese national markings for local consumption.

    So smart, they are. So unable to create, They have to steal from others.

    I spent a second month in China, 15 years later. I have no problem with the Chinese people. None whatsoever. I’ve found most of them to be naturally kind and considerate.

    I despise the Chicomms. Same as do the Chinese population.

    China space is not about the Chinese people.

  • Jeff Wright

    They have a love of learning there. If somehow they invaded California—they’d cane the school brats into submission.

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