Chinese pseudo-company successfully completes first orbital launch of methane-fueled rocket
The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace on July 12 (Chinese time) successfully completed the first orbital launch of methane-fueled rocket, Zhuque-2, placing a test payload into orbit after lifting off from China’s interior Jiuquan spaceport.
No word on where the first stage crashed, or whether it landed near habitable areas. The following sentence from the news report struck me as significant, considering the decade-long effort by Blue Origin to develop its own BE-4 methane-fueled engine:
Testing of the TQ-12 engine started in July 2019, with Wednesday’s launch coming after four years of research and development by the company.
It took this pseudo-company four years of testing to finally achieve its first orbital launch. Blue Origin began testing the BE-4 engine in 2017, and still hasn’t gotten off that first launch.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
46 SpaceX
26 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 52 to 26, and the entire world combined 52 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the rest of the world (excluding other American companies) 46 to 44.
Note: I do not consider these Chinese companies private or independent of the Chinese government. There is no independent ownership. They might obtain investment capital and win Chinese contracts and make profits, but nothing they do belongs to the company management, and everything they do is closely supervised by the Chinese government. At any moment that government can take that company from its management. Thus, I will never list these companies separately.
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The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace on July 12 (Chinese time) successfully completed the first orbital launch of methane-fueled rocket, Zhuque-2, placing a test payload into orbit after lifting off from China’s interior Jiuquan spaceport.
No word on where the first stage crashed, or whether it landed near habitable areas. The following sentence from the news report struck me as significant, considering the decade-long effort by Blue Origin to develop its own BE-4 methane-fueled engine:
Testing of the TQ-12 engine started in July 2019, with Wednesday’s launch coming after four years of research and development by the company.
It took this pseudo-company four years of testing to finally achieve its first orbital launch. Blue Origin began testing the BE-4 engine in 2017, and still hasn’t gotten off that first launch.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
46 SpaceX
26 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 52 to 26, and the entire world combined 52 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the rest of the world (excluding other American companies) 46 to 44.
Note: I do not consider these Chinese companies private or independent of the Chinese government. There is no independent ownership. They might obtain investment capital and win Chinese contracts and make profits, but nothing they do belongs to the company management, and everything they do is closely supervised by the Chinese government. At any moment that government can take that company from its management. Thus, I will never list these companies separately.
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.
Can we say the same of Tesla in China? Musk must know that hasn’t many options. The government has hit him with recalls and can and will nationalize his operation. It is just a matter of time. There are no operations, even foreign operations that don’t ultimately serve the Chinese state. I wonder how his Chinese business will influence his stand on Twitter censorship.
Successful people are rarely moral
Moral people are rarely successful
Jeff Wright,
You have that backwards in the business world. Immoral people don’t get repeat customers. It does have validity in the political world.
If you want immoral, investigate the people that never move forward because it’s someone else’s fault. Start with prisons and unemployment lines.
Jeff Wright,
I am wondering at your definition of success.
I worked at a small security outfit. I had a chance to leave…but my doing so would likely have caused the end of the company.
Many of my fellow guards couldn’t read or write….and I didn’t want to put anyone out.
In the end, Pinson Valley Security went under thanks to the bosses drinking.
My encounters with small business America:
Home repair rip-offs that targeted my elderly parents.
Don’t-care doctors
Auto mechanic cheats.
At least there was a family atmosphere at PVS—not including the drunk. I stayed there 16 years.
Ever notice that some people just have repeated bad luck? Over and over again.
I have had some bad luck but nothing that cost me much or debilitated me for any time.
Stuff happens and concentrating on it just seems to drag in more bad luck.
China just imposed its highest fines yet on a company.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/business/china-jack-ma-wealth-drop-intl-hnk/index.html
Ant and it founder Jack Ma.
Almost a billion in fines, China would never do this to a foreign investor because it would lead to an increased desire to leave China.