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This week: China gets a space station, the rocket didn’t kill anyone (probably), and more news on the mega-constellation.

China gets a Space Station

Obviously the biggest China space news event to happen lately is the launch of China’s space station and the semi-panic that erupted with the rocket tumbling back to Earth.

Source: CAST via Global Times

I’ll go ahead and quote an article that I wrote for my website about the station, which you can find here. I hope for it to be the first of a series of articles explaining the basics of China’s space program.

Tianhe, the core module of the planned Chinese space station, launched aboard a Long March 5B from Wenchang on April 29, 2021. Tiānhé (天和) means heavenly peace and is pronounced Tyen huh.
While the launch went smoothly, the discarded Long March rocket made an uncontrolled reentry on May 9, with debris landing near the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The uncontrolled reentry of the rocket attracted a great deal of attention, even being mentioned on SNL. The US government criticized China over the incident, with the NASA Administrator saying that “it is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.”

Source: BBC

Some quick facts:

What’s it called?

It’s a bit ambiguous – Chinese sources have called it “China’s space station” and Tiangong. An official name will probably be firmed up later on.

Who’s in charge?

China’s official crewed spaceflight program is run by the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), which is a part of the Chinese military, rather than the more civilian China National Space Administration (CNSA).

How big is it?

It’s smaller than the International Space Station, and it’s roughly the same size as the Soviet (and later Russian) Mir space station. It’s a little smaller than Mir, but its resupply ship will be larger and presumably require fewer supply missions.

Source: nature

Why is China building its own space station?

It’s a normal part of a country’s crewed spaceflight program to want to have a more permanent presence in space. What’s going to be particularly frustrating over the coming months and years is that the same China hawks who will portray China’s space station as something ominous or threatening are the same people who would have opposed China joining the International Space Station. It’s impossible to know for sure whether China would have joined the ISS, but there are reports that China had wanted to join and the United States certainly vetoed any chance of that happening.

When will it be complete?

China plans to complete its space station over the course of ten additional launches over the next two years. In May 2021, China plans to launch an uncrewed cargo mission with a Tianzhou 2 ahead of the first crew to visit the station aboard a Shenzhou 12 in June 2021.

News Highlights

April 19: The head of CASC’s satellite subsidiary said that Hongyan constellation planned by CASC would undergo major changes (link in Chinese) and that the Hongyan constellation as well as CASIC’s Hongyun constellation were being included in China’s national satellite constellation plans.

April 29: Some further clarification on China’s state-led megaconstellation (which I’ve discussed previously) came out as SASAC announced (link in Chinese) that a company called China Satellite Network Group (中国卫星网络集团有限公司) was being created under SASAC (the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission).

Dongfang Hour had a good thread explaining the relevance of this move:

Dongfang Hour #DFH 東方鴻 @DongFangHour

Huge news as China creates a "SatNet" (中国星网) company directly under SASAC (i.e. at the same level as the big 3 telcos, CASC, and CASIC), with the purpose of operating a LEO constellation. A lot to break down here (1/4) sasac.gov.cn/n2588030/n2588…

Until next time

My name is Cory Fitz and I write the Taikonautica newsletter. To make you smarter about China’s rapidly evolving space industry, Taikonautica brings you translations of Chinese-language articles, as well as a roundup of links and news.

If you have any questions, comments, or corrections, tweet at me at @cory_fitz or email me at cory@taikonautica.com.

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