China's Long March 5 Rocket Returns To Flight (space.com) 20
schwit1 shares a report from Space.com: China's biggest rocket, the Long March 5, returned to flight for the first time since a 2017 failure Friday (Dec. 27) in a dazzling nighttime launch for the Chinese space program. The Long March 5 Y3 rocket lifted off at 8:45 p.m. Beijing Time carrying the experimental Shijian 20 communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit. The satellite, which weighs a reported 8 metric tons, is China's heaviest and most advanced satellite to date, according to state media reports. The successful launch is the first Long March 5 since a first-stage booster failure in 2017 destroyed the Shijian 18 satellite. The failure prompted redesigns in the rocket's first-stage engines, which led to a two-year gap between missions. The first Long March 5 rocket lifted off in 2016.
The Long March 5 is an essential booster for China's space ambitions. The heavy-lift booster will be the one to launch China's space station modules into orbit, as well as a Mars lander in 2020 and the Chang'e 5 moon sample-return mission. China is also expected to use a version of the Long March 5, called the Long March 5B, to launch a new crewed spacecraft -- the successor to its current Shenzhou crew capsule.
The Long March 5 is an essential booster for China's space ambitions. The heavy-lift booster will be the one to launch China's space station modules into orbit, as well as a Mars lander in 2020 and the Chang'e 5 moon sample-return mission. China is also expected to use a version of the Long March 5, called the Long March 5B, to launch a new crewed spacecraft -- the successor to its current Shenzhou crew capsule.
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Is this Comey or Maddow posting as AC?
Everybody else moved on after the Muller report. Try adjusting your trolling tactics if you want to keep getting paid on the CIA contract - you really should be fired for gross incompetence as a troll at this point.
GTO vs GEO (Score:2)
carrying the experimental Shijian 20 communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit.
I doubt that. Normally, a rocket's second stage will take the payload to "GTO", a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is a highly elliptical orbit with low point (perigee) near earth, and high point (apogee) intersecting a geosynchronous orbit. That way, the stage returns to earth and can be de-orbited, so as not to be a space-junk hazard. The satellite has its own engine to "circularise" from GTO to actual geosynchronous orbit, which takes some time.
You'd think a website called "space.com" would know be
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It's actually really hard for a writer to be smarter than millions of tech nerds in the field that he's writing about. Basic statistics dictate that.
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This is good (Score:2)
I'm quite happy to see this launch go well for China. I'm not terribly knowledgable about the internals of their space program but a few things of note:
a) They launched this from the coast. Usually they send up rockets from inside the country and drop the booster on land... sometimes in a village or on a house.
b) Their first stage on the smaller rockets they've been launching are fueled with hypergolics. These are pretty nasty to humans and I don't think ANYBODY else uses them in the first stage. They're
Re: This is good (Score:2)
Prediction - China wins "Red" Planet (Score:2)
China is going to put people on Mars before anybody else. Americans won't like to hear this.
Things they don't need to worry about:
1. Reusability - budget isn't an issue; have a hundred production lines.
2. Safety - they have plenty of people willing to endure more risk to explorers.
3. Return. Maybe. They have no problem exterminating Uyghurs - individual lives don't register. They may paper over this with a failed settlement attempt, but all humans will know forever the names of four Chinese men who were
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China is going to put people on Mars before anybody else. Americans won't like to hear this.
If we were just talking about China vs. America, you'd be totally right. Unfortunately for China, Elon Musk is not part of the equation. Elon is going to put people on Mars before anyone. It's one of his stated goals. At the very least, he will send himself to Mars to die on it. He would, in one mission, stamp his name in the history books forever which, to him, would be the ultimate Ego trip.
8 metric tons? (Score:2)
If you are going to use metric, use it properly:
8 metric *tonnes*
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And the American Writer saying metric tons is FINE. For the majority of the world, tons implies metric ton. Only in America does this matter ( thanx to reagan/GOP ).
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True, I would've said this if you hadn't already.
No it doesn't. In the UK, "ton" and "tonne" are pronounced identically, and you have to say "long ton" (2240lb) or "metric tonne" (1000kg) if you want to differentiate between them. In Australia, "ton" and "tonne" are pronounced differently (like "tunn" and "tonn" respectively) - the former implies long ton, the latter is obviously metric.
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In France it would be interpreted as an English long ton (2240lb) because you'd use tonne if you meant the metric unit (1000kg). Same in Germany - ton for English long ton, tonne for metric 1000kg. In Chinese, it would likely be interpreted as a US short ton (2000lb) because you'd use the Chinese "dun" if you meant 1000kg.
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Long March to Misery and Oblivion (Score:1)