Tag: China

China’s Chang’e 2 lunar probe, now out of lunar orbit, did a fly-by of the 3 mile wide asteroid Toutatis as it zipped past the Earth last week, resulting in some spectacular images.

2:17 pm

China’s Chang’e 2 lunar probe, now out of lunar orbit, did a fly-by of the 3 mile wide asteroid Toutatis as it zipped past the Earth last week, resulting in some spectacular images.

Launched on October 1, 2010, Chang’e 2 orbited the Moon for 8 months before being redirected last year to the L2 Lagrange point, roughly a million miles on the side of Earth opposite the Sun. But when it left L2 last April, Western observers suspected the spacecraft was heading deeper interplanetary space. It didn’t take long to realize that Chang’e 2 was bound for Toutatis.

This is an example of a very smart re-use of a space probe.

By the way, the first fly-by of another planet took place fifty years ago this week.

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The Obama administration has approved a deal between Space Systems/Loral and a Chinese satellite company, even though this is the same company that leaked crucial satellite technology to China in the past.

10:01 am

Here we go again: The Obama administration has approved a deal between Space Systems/Loral and a Chinese satellite company, even though this is the same company that leaked crucial satellite technology to China in the past.

Loral is the same company that gave big donations to Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party back in the 1990s, then got permission to make a launch deal with the Chinese. Shortly thereafter it was learned that the Chinese had obtained restricted and crucial military satellite technology from the arrangement.

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China is in its final preparations for the launch of its next manned mission.

9:04 am

The new colonial movement: China is in its final preparations for the launch of its next manned mission, expected any day now.

This is the key quote from the article:

China aims to build a space station around 2020 based on the space rendezvous and docking technology that is currently being tested. Several components will be sent into space separately before being assembled into a space station through a variety of docking procedures.

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