China – Page 3 – Spaceflight Now

China’s Tianwen 1 mission targets mid-May landing on Mars

April 1, 2021 Stephen Clark

China’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft — in orbit around Mars since February — is scheduled to deploy a descent module to attempt the country’s first landing on the Red Planet in mid-May. Officials plan to share the Mars rover’s scientific data with researchers around the world, a senior Chinese scientist said last week.

China launches Gaofen Earth observation satellite

March 30, 2021 Stephen Clark

An Earth observation satellite China says will assist in land surveys, urban planning, and agriculture monitoring successfully launched Tuesday on a Chinese Long March 4C rocket.

Russia looks to China as new space exploration partner

March 15, 2021 Stephen Clark

Russia’s decision to partner with China on a planned lunar research station, and not join the U.S.-led Artemis moon program, was disappointing after more than two decades of cooperation on the International Space Station, says NASA’s top human spaceflight official.

China launches spy satellite triplet for third time this year

March 14, 2021 Stephen Clark

Three Chinese military satellites launched Saturday aboard a Long March 4C rocket, joining six others China has sent into orbit since the start of the year on ocean surveillance missions.

China’s Long March 7A rocket successful on second flight

March 12, 2021 Stephen Clark

The second flight of China’s new medium-lift Long March 7A rocket successfully placed an experimental satellite into orbit Thursday, following a failed launch of the same configuration last year caused by a problem in a booster liquid oxygen system.

Another trio of Chinese military satellites successfully deployed

February 27, 2021 Stephen Clark

Weeks after the launch of an earlier trio of Chinese military satellites, another spacecraft triplet successfully took off Feb. 24 aboard a Long March 4C rocket on a clandestine mission that analysts believe may involve spying on foreign naval forces.

Spectacular video released from China’s first Mars mission

February 15, 2021 Stephen Clark

China’s space agency has released a pair of spectacular video clips from “selfie” cameras on-board the country’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft as it braked into orbit around Mars on Feb. 10.

China’s first Mars mission enters orbit around Red Planet

February 10, 2021 Stephen Clark

China placed is first spacecraft into orbit around Mars on Wednesday, continuing an international blitz on the Red Planet one day after the arrival of a spacecraft from United Arab Emirates and eight days before the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover.

China launches military satellite toward geostationary orbit

February 7, 2021 Stephen Clark

A mysterious Chinese government satellite, believed to be a military-operated early warning station, successfully launched into orbit Feb. 4 on top of a Long March 3B rocket.

After success in 2019, Chinese startup fails on second orbital launch attempt

February 4, 2021 Stephen Clark

The second orbital launch attempt by Chinese launch company iSpace failed shortly after liftoff Feb. 1, following a successful debut flight in 2019 that made iSpace the first private firm in China to put a payload into orbit.