Two Chinese Kuaizhou-1A launches within six hours
The new colonial movement: China today successfully completed two separate Kuaizhou-1A launches, placing in orbit seven total smallsats and doing it within a space of only six hours.
China launched two orbital missions from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center within six hours of each other, orbiting a total of seven satellites. The launches, using mobile pads, saw two Kuaizhou-1A rockets heading into space on Saturday at 2:55 UTC and 8:52 UTC.
The first Kuaizhou-1A rocket, serial number Y2, orbited the Jilin-1 Gaofen-2B remote sensing satellite for the Jilin-1 constellation.
…Six hours after the first launch, and as was expected by the navigational warnings previously published, a second Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle, serial number Y12, had already been displaced to the launch site, but from a different pad. Analysis of the images available from the second launch seems to indicate that launch took place from a location within the Launch Complex 16 usually used for the Long March-6 launches. Ignition came at 8:52UTC.
The three-stage launch vehicle orbited six satellites.
This achievement is a very big deal. China has demonstrated the ability to launch and then launch again quickly with this military-based mobile launch system. This not only enhances their commercial value, it tells us they have developed a military capability able to put payloads into orbit at almost a moment’s notice.
The leaders in the 2019 launch race:
29 China
19 Russia
12 SpaceX
7 Europe (Arianespace)
6 Rocket Lab
China now leads the U.S. 29 to 25 in the national rankings.
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The new colonial movement: China today successfully completed two separate Kuaizhou-1A launches, placing in orbit seven total smallsats and doing it within a space of only six hours.
China launched two orbital missions from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center within six hours of each other, orbiting a total of seven satellites. The launches, using mobile pads, saw two Kuaizhou-1A rockets heading into space on Saturday at 2:55 UTC and 8:52 UTC.
The first Kuaizhou-1A rocket, serial number Y2, orbited the Jilin-1 Gaofen-2B remote sensing satellite for the Jilin-1 constellation.
…Six hours after the first launch, and as was expected by the navigational warnings previously published, a second Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle, serial number Y12, had already been displaced to the launch site, but from a different pad. Analysis of the images available from the second launch seems to indicate that launch took place from a location within the Launch Complex 16 usually used for the Long March-6 launches. Ignition came at 8:52UTC.
The three-stage launch vehicle orbited six satellites.
This achievement is a very big deal. China has demonstrated the ability to launch and then launch again quickly with this military-based mobile launch system. This not only enhances their commercial value, it tells us they have developed a military capability able to put payloads into orbit at almost a moment’s notice.
The leaders in the 2019 launch race:
29 China
19 Russia
12 SpaceX
7 Europe (Arianespace)
6 Rocket Lab
China now leads the U.S. 29 to 25 in the national rankings.
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.
And reload with another nuclear/chemical/biological warhead equipped missile quickly after launching a previous one. Good luck PAC, THAAD and Aegis as they run out of interceptors (US doctrine is to launch at least two against each incoming target)
And also challenging ASAT by being able to replace satellites quickly
Amazing what can be done when your core mission is actually putting stuff in space, and not just providing jobs for engineers with graduate degrees.
Col Beausabre
Actually that is a problem with those mobile launchers.
they do not reload in the field. The smaller launcher can be but something the size of those needs quite a bot more than just a crane and another rocket.
The reason they are mobile is to hide them before launch.
Granted they could make a thousand launchers and a thousand rockets for them and then launch a thousand at one time. But who couldn’t do that?
Just like back in the old cold war days. What do they gain vs what they lose if they launch them at all?
They are just looking for a reason top keep them.
440 MinuteMan 3’s, presently on alert, delivering up to 1,320 nuclear warheads launched instantly, should discourage most suicidal activities.
Kicking the Saudis out of our country and out of our schools would go a long way towards discouraging future suicide attacks.
They can pound sand.
Better yet, we should pound their
sand into glass for them.
Captain Emeritus–
Good stuff!
Minuteman III launch animation
https://youtu.be/S-V6MZlyCqE
2:22