Chinese Space News (June 2000)

• [June 29, 2000] Liquid Oxygen/Kerosene Engine Test Fire Successful
  China's new Liquid Oxygen/Kerosene rocket engine has tested fire successfully. The "semi-system" engine test fire was performed in Fengzhou Test Center in recent days. It is a major milestone in China's rocket engine development program, which paves a way to the new generation large thrust, non-pollution space launch vehicle. China has studied liquid Oxygen/Kerosene engine for years (China Space News)

• [June 29, 2000] Tsinghua-1 in Orbit
  A Cosmos-3M rocket carrying Russian, British and Chinese satellites on board lifted off from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia at 6:38 AM EDT (1038 GMT) on Wednesday. All three satellites, the Russian Nadezhda, Chinese Tsinghua-1 and British SNAP-1, successfully entered their planned orbits, said Konstantin Kreydenko, a Russian Space Agency spokesman. (AP, Interfax)

• [June 29, 2000] More Details About Tsinghua-1
  Tsinghua-1 is the first demonstrator for the Disaster Monitoring Constellation and carries multi-spectral Earth imaging cameras providing 39-metre nadir ground resolution in 3 spectral bands. The  satellite will also carry out research in low Earth orbit using digital store-and-forward communications, a digital signal processing (DSP) experiment, a Surrey-built GPS space receiver and a new 3-axis microsat attitude control experiment. Tsinghua-1 will make use of the SGR-10, with 12 channels and equipped with two receive antennas, to investigate the use of GPS signals in microsat on-board attitude as well as orbit determination. (SSTL)

• [June 29, 2000] China Develops More Small Satellites
  Besides Tsinghua-1,  CAS(China Academy of Science)'s Chuang Xing-1 and the CAST968 bus(SJ-5 and HY-1) that is developed by China Academy of Space Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is also developing a small satellite. The satellite was officially named Tansuo-1 (Exploration-1) in early June when the institute celebrates its 80 anniversary. Tansuo-1 is a hi-resolution imaging satellite. The satellite has entered engineering prototype phase and is to be launched in next year. (Huasheng News)

• [June 25, 2000] China Launches FY-2B
  China launched a meteorological satellite into orbit Sunday using one of its largest rockets, state-run media reported. The satellite was launched by a Long March 3 rocket from the Xichang launching center in southwestern China, the Xinhua News Agency said. The satellite, named Fengyun 2, is the second geostationary meteorological satellite launched by China and is an improved version of a satellite launched in 1997, Xinhua said, quoting unidentified Chinese rocket experts. The launch was the 61st by a rocket in the Long March series and the 13th blastoff by a Long March 3 rocket, it said. (AFP, Sina.com)

• [June 23, 2000] Tsinghua-1 Under Launch Preparation
  The Plesetsk cosmodrome, situated in the north-western part of European Russia, is completing preparations for firing off the Russian Nadezhda (Hope) satellite, the Chinese satellite Tsinghua-1 and British SNAP-1 satellite, Itar-Tass reported.   They will be put into orbit by a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. A group of Chinese scientists and technicians led by Deputy Director of the Chinese Space Centre You Reng is already working at Plesetsk to prepare the Chinese satellite for launch on June 28.   The launch can mark the beginning of a wide-scale programme of   Russian-Chinese cooperation in space. "Our strategic interaction is based on the coincidence of vital interests," Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev declared on Tuesday. (TASS, photo credit: SSTL)

• [June 23, 2000] ChinaSat-1 Goes Well
  China Orient Telecomm Satellite Co, whose ChinaStar-1 went into operation two years ago, has its sights fixed on both the heavens and the earth. "The ChinaStar-1 has performed well since it was placed into orbit on May 30, 1998," said Hao Weimin, president of China Orient, in an interview with China Daily. "It has weathered dramatic outer space environmental changes, such as meteor showers and eclipses," he said. ChinaStar-1 has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. As of today 56 per cent of ChinaStar-1's capacity has been leased, company sources said. As the Internet expands in China, Hao said he expects more Internet service providers to use satellites for high-speed, broadband Web access. The transponders on ChinaStar-1 have widths of 36MHz and 72MHz. (China Daily)

• [June 23, 2000] Shuttle Lands in Shanghai
  In a early morning in June, Space Shuttle Discovery landed in the Zhongshan Park, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. However this 34m long shuttle is not the real Discovery that flies into space many times. Instead, it is a ground article provided by NASA. The shuttle is one part of the "Space Technology Show" from July 10. The shuttle was transported to China in more than 20 boxes and will be assembled in 5 days by NASA workers. The Show will also display the Apollo moon rover, a 1:3 Mir model, and a "ready to launch" Long March 4 rocket. (CAST)

• [June 22, 2000] WFI on ZY-1 Fails
  After 177 days smooth working and transmitting thousands of pictures, the WFI (Wide Field Imager) on ZY-1 (CBERS-1) resource satellite failed in early May. Chinese and Brazilian technicians have tried a series of attempts to re-activate it but without success. The problem is probably a short circuit on a North American Built component on the WFI, a major contribution of Brazil in the CBERS project. With the loss of the WFI, the CBERS-1 approximately loses 1.5% of its data communication capacity. Other devices, including the high resolution CCD camera, continue work normally. (INPE)

• [June 21, 2000] SingTel In Joint Venture With APT Satellite
  A new joint venture between Hong Kong's APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. will invest HK$200 million to HK$300 million over the next three years to provide international telecommunication services, the companies announced. The new venture, named APT Satellite Telecommunications Ltd., will be 55 percent owned by APT Satellite Glory Ltd., a wholly owned unit of APT Satellite Holdings, and 45 percent by SingTel unit SingaSat.
  Under the terms of the license, APT Telecom, which is based in Hong Kong, will be able to offer external telecommunications services in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region through APT Satellite's APSTAR satellites and other systems. It plans to offer initially three external telecommunications network services: wholesale services, VSAT services, and Internet point-of-presence (POP) Gateway. The joint venture will give SingTel access to HK and the China market after it lost a bid for Cable & Wireless HKT. (SatNews Asia)

• [June 15, 2000] Cabling Improved on Shenzhou-2
  China's second man rated spacecraft, Shenzhou-2, will use a new modular cabling design. The new design reduced total weight of  more than 100kg on the orbital module and the re-entry module. It also provides a clearer internal space and   protects cables from damaging by hiding originally exposed cables. The new technology is developed by China Academy of Space Technology (5th Academy). (China Space News)

• [June 15, 2000] China Prepares Plan For Space Station
  China is planning to orbit its own space station via a three phased plan. Wang Yongzhi, the chief manned spaceflight engineer and designer, told a conference held in Beijing that the first phase would be launching a manned spacecraft over a series of unmanned and manned flights, delivering taikonauts to near-Earth orbit and returning them to Earth safely. While in orbit taikonauts would conduct earth observations and space experiments. The focus of the second phase is undertaking spacewalking activities (EVAs), docking and related tests, and the launching of a space laboratory which would only be man-tended on a short-term basis and left in an automated mode between visits. The third phase is the construction of a larger lab that would form China's first space station and which would be permanently manned. (SpaceDaily)

• [June 12, 2000] INTELSAT to Lease Six Transponders on SINOSAT-1
  INTELSAT and SINO Satellite Communications Company Limited (SINOSAT) have reached agreement to give INTELSAT an option to lease capacity on the SINOSAT-1 satellite located at 110.5 degrees E. SINOSAT will provide up to six 36 MHz C-band transponders to INTELSAT to meet increasing customer demand in the Asia Pacific Region. The INTELSAT/SINOSAT agreement was announced at the CommunicAsia 2000 conference held in Singapore on June 6-9. (SatNews Asia)

• [June 8, 2000] Ziyuan-2 Assembly Starts
  The second Sino-Brazilian resource satellite, ZY-2 (CBERS-2)  has started assembly in June in Brazil. The assembly and testing will last one year and would be ready for launch in mid of next year. China will send a large amount of test equipment, blueprints and documents, and hundreds of technicians to Brazil to perform the task. (China Space News)

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