China – Page 8 – Spaceflight Now

China moves massive rocket into place for ambitious Mars shot

July 21, 2020 Stephen Clark

China’s heaviest rocket has rolled to its launch pad for liftoff Thursday with the country’s first Mars landing mission, an ambitious attempt to place an orbiter around the Red Planet and a robotic rover on the Martian surface in early 2021.

New Chinese satellite launcher fails on first flight

July 10, 2020 Stephen Clark

The first flight of the new Chinese Kuaizhou 11 solid-fueled rocket failed to place two small satellites into orbit Friday, and Chinese state media said the cause of the malfunction is under investigation.

High-throughput communications satellite launched from China

July 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

A high-power broadband communications satellite designed to provide Internet access to airliner passengers, cruise ships, fishing vessels, and other mobile users successfully launched Thursday aboard a Chinese Long March 3B rocket.

Chinese launches loft satellites to study space environment and observe Earth

July 6, 2020 Stephen Clark

China launched a Long March 2D rocket Saturday with a satellite Chinese officials claimed will study the space environment and conduct technology demonstrations, less than two days after a Long March 4B rocket took off from a different launch site with an Earth-imaging payload.

China launches Earth observation satellite

June 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Gaofen Earth-imaging satellite and two secondary payloads launched Wednesday aboard a Chinese Long March 2D rocket.

China launches ocean monitoring satellite

June 10, 2020 Stephen Clark

A civilian-operated Chinese oceanography satellite deployed in orbit after lifting off on a Long March 2C rocket Wednesday, joining a predecessor launched in 2018 to monitor ocean color and water temperatures.

Two Chinese launches deploy satellites for Earth-imaging, tech demonstrations

June 1, 2020 Stephen Clark

Two launches of Chinese rockets Friday and Sunday successfully placed Earth-imaging and technology demonstration satellites into orbit. The two missions, which took off from different spaceports, flew board Long March 11 and Long March 2D rockets.

First two smallsats launched for Chinese data relay constellation

May 12, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Chinese Kuaizhou 1A rocket launched Tuesday with the first two spacecraft for China’s planned 80-satellite Xingyun communications and data relay constellation.

China’s massive Long March 5B’s rocket falls out of orbit over Atlantic Ocean

May 11, 2020 Stephen Clark

A large rocket stage left in space after the successful launch of China’s heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket May 5 fell into the atmosphere Monday over the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the most massive object in nearly 30 years to perform an uncontrolled re-entry from orbit.

U.S. military tracking unguided re-entry of large Chinese rocket

May 9, 2020 Stephen Clark

A Chinese rocket measuring around 100 feet long that launched earlier this month will likely plunge back into Earth’s atmosphere some time Monday, becoming the most massive object in decades to fall out of orbit in an uncontrolled manner.