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Second Chinese company completes suborbital rocket test

For the second time this week, a Chinese “private” company successfully completed a suborbital rocket test.

This time the launch was by OneSpace, which should not be confused with the other company, iSpace. As with iSpace, the rocket used was a solid rocket, which once again makes me think it is doing work for the Chinese military, and is therefore not as independent or as private as Americans normally consider private companies.

Moreover, the launch was filmed by one of China’s spy satellites, also suggesting the military’s interest in this rocket company’s development. You can see both a ground-based and that satellite’s view of the launch at the link.

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.

 

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7 comments

  • Kirk

    Here is a 1:45 video of the launch showing two ground based views and one view from a Jilin-1 video satellite in a 650 km sun synchronous orbit. That satellite video, which starts at 0:57, is quite interesting to see.

    Has anyone here seen such detailed orbital video of a rocket launch before?

  • wayne

    Kirk-
    thanks for that video.

    As has been mentioned before– what’s the deal with all these chi-com sounding-rockets?
    (as well, it’s all military-related)

    referencing small autonomous space vehicle’s…
    “MKV Hover & Tracking test”
    https://youtu.be/KBMU6l6GsdM
    (1:35)

    “December 2008 free-flight hover test of Lockheed Martin’s Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV-L). The MKV is designed to allow a single interceptor to destroy a ballistic missile equipped with multiple warheads or countermeasures. In Lockheed’s design, a seeker-equipped carrier vehicle maneuvers into the path of the ballistic missile then dispenses and guides small kill vehicles to their targets. In its first test, the MKV-L hovered for 20 seconds in a special facility at Edwards AFB, California, while recognizing and tracking a simulated target.”

  • Kirk: This launch is likely as much a test of the Jilin-1 satellite as it is of the OneSpace suborbital rocket.

  • wayne

    Sounding Rockets explained
    https://youtu.be/t8G3YPEczqg
    3:57

  • wayne

    “Establishing a Rocket Research Range”
    1962 NASA
    https://youtu.be/XD2o9vv4xtk
    15:32

    and
    Poker Flat Research Range
    [http://www.pfrr.alaska.edu/]

  • Col Beausabre

    Wayne, Thanks for the videos! I second Bob’s opinion on this being also a test of the satellite. Our DSP and SBIRSreplaced by SBIRS birds pick up the rocket plume and send word back to NORAD.

    “DSP satellites, which are operated by the Air Force Space Command, detect missile or spacecraft launches and nuclear explosions using sensors that detect the infrared emissions from these intense sources of heat. During Desert Storm, for example, DSP was able to detect the launches of Iraqi Scud missiles and provide timely warnings to civilians and military forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia.[1] ”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Support_Program

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-Based_Infrared_System

  • wayne

    Col Beausabre-
    good stuff.

    here you go… utilizing SpaceX for military testing

    “F-35 JSF infrared sensor tracks SpaceX rocket launch”
    –2010–
    https://youtu.be/IZrvAFRhQZc
    1:30

    “A F-35 Joint Strike Fighter tracked SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle flight during a recent test flight…” “The “distributed-aperture sensor” (DAS) on the F-35 detects and tracks the rocket at horizon-break without the aid of external cues, then continuously tracks the rocket through first-stage burnout, second-stage ignition, across boundaries between DAS sensors, and through the rocket’s second-stage burnout at a distance of more than 800 miles. The video also shows the DAS detecting and tracking the rocket’s first-stage re-entry.”

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