China’s Long March 2D launches 3 satellites
China today successfully placed three “remote sensing” satellites into orbit, using its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in south China.
The state-run press provided no other information, including whether the rocket’s lower stages crashed near habitable areas. According to the flight path, the crash zones were near major population centers, including one city with a population of nine million.
SpaceX meanwhile scrubbed a Falcon 9 launch this morning at Vandenberg due to an issue with one first stage engine, but it is still scheduled to launch 22 Starlink satellites this afternoon from Cape Canaveral. The live stream is here.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
59 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 68 to 38. It also leads the entire world combined, 68 to 61, while SpaceX by itself now trails the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 59 to 61 in successful launches.
China today successfully placed three “remote sensing” satellites into orbit, using its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in south China.
The state-run press provided no other information, including whether the rocket’s lower stages crashed near habitable areas. According to the flight path, the crash zones were near major population centers, including one city with a population of nine million.
SpaceX meanwhile scrubbed a Falcon 9 launch this morning at Vandenberg due to an issue with one first stage engine, but it is still scheduled to launch 22 Starlink satellites this afternoon from Cape Canaveral. The live stream is here.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
59 SpaceX
38 China
12 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 68 to 38. It also leads the entire world combined, 68 to 61, while SpaceX by itself now trails the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 59 to 61 in successful launches.