Chinese Space News (March - April, 2001)

• [April 29, 2001] China May Take Part in ISS Project
  Russia's space agency said China may decide to take part in building the US$95 billion International Space Station. Yuri Koptev, head of Russia's space agency, said China might be part of the ambitious project. "Today there are preliminary talks on this, and one should not rule out China's participation in this programme," Kazakh television showed Koptev telling reporters on Saturday after a Russian spaceship took US space tourist Dennis Tito into orbit. "I believe that in the next eight or 10 years space exploration will aim primarily at implementing the ISS project," he said. "Major states involved in space exploration are joining forces to achieve this." China has no experience of manned space flights but its space industry is on the rise and it has successfully launched large satellites. (China Daily)

• [April 24, 2001] European Delegation to China to Discuss DoubleStar Mission
  A group of European Space Agency delegates and space scientists travel to Beijing to meet their Chinese counterparts. Under discussion was possible European participation in a dual-spacecraft mission known as Double Star. Double Star will be the first mission that China has ever launched to explore the Earth's magnetosphere. This mission consists of two satellites, the equatorial satellite DSP-E, following a 550 x 60000 km orbit, inclined at 28.5 degrees to the equator and the polar satellite DSP-P, following a 350 x 25000 km orbit inclined at 90 degrees to the equator. This will enable scientists to obtain simultaneous data about the changing magnetic field and population of electrified particles in different regions of the magnetosphere. Each 270 kg Double Star satellite will carry a payload of scientific experiments - ten on the equatorial spacecraft and nine on its companion. It is envisaged that about half of the experiments will be provided by European institutes, nearly all of which are flight spares from the four Cluster spacecraft. (ESA)

• [April 23, 2001] Seeds Satellite to be Launched Early Next Year
  China is to launch the world's first "Seeds Satellite" early next year. The satellite will be a modified and simplified version of the FSW recoverable satellite. Unnecessary equipment will be removed from the satellite. Radiation shield will be modified to allow more space rays on the seeds. Structural changes are to increase internal space of the re-entry capsule. When it is launched, the satellite will carry 300kg of seeds of more than 1000 species in nine categories. (Source: STV)

• [April 23, 2001] Kaitozhe 1 Targets First Commercial Launch Next Year
  One year after establishment of the Space Solid Fuel Rocket Carrier Co., Ltd, its flagship product, the Kaituozhe 1 launch vehicle, has made solid progresses. Overall design of the vehicle and designs of its 12 subsystems have passed critical reviews. Kaituozhe 1's first commercial launch has been scheduled in next year. The company also has an ambitious long-term plan. It will develop 7 solid engines and three launch vehicles and make up to 10 launches in 5 years.

• [April 23, 2001] APT Satellite Net Profit Drops 61.8 Percent
  Asia's economic recovery has hammered APT Satellite Holdings Ltd. The company announced a sharp fall in its net profit for 2000 to US$18.35 million, off 61.8 percent from 1999. APT Satellite blamed the unexpected shortfall to lower capacity usage and margins. APT Satellite said that while Asia's recovery from the financial crisis of 1997 triggered investment and market demand in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, the supply and demand for regional satellite transponders was balanced by tougher competition. It said the average utilization rate for its Apstar I and Apstar IA satellites was around 63 percent at end-2000, and 100 percent for Apstar IIR. Since Apstar I is expected to retire in mid-2004, the Group has commissioned Apstar V on 8 January 2001 and the satellite will be launched in February 2003. (Source: Satnews Asia)

• [April 12, 2001] CX-1 to be Launched Soon
  Gu Yidong, a scientist from Space Science and Applications Research Center of China Academy of Sciences(CAS), reveals on a seminar held at end of last month that the CAS's first small satellite Chuang Xing 1 (CX-1) will be launched soon. CX-1 is a "Store and Relay" communication satellite. Gu says the development of the satellite so far goes smoothly (Source: CAST)

• [April 12, 2001] ZY-1 Working Smoothly
  The ZY-1 (CBERS-1) resource satellite has worked normally for 17 months. The satellite was put into service in early last year. Since then it has received orders of more than 13000 images. Its successor, the CBERS-2, has completed assembly in Brazil. Its is reported that  testing of the satellite is quite smooth. (Source: CAST)

• [March 29, 2001] Intelsat APR3/Sinosat-1B Launch Agreement Signed
  China Great Wall Industry Corp (CGWIC) signed an agreement on Friday to launch a European-made satellite owned by Intelsat next year, marking the first time Intelsat has used China since a failed launch in 1996. CGWIC would put into orbit the satellite made by Astrium using a Long March 3B rocket, most likely in May 2002.
  Great Wall president Zhang Xinxia said he was confident
  Chinese-made rockets were safe and reliable. The satellite, called APR-3 or SINOSAT-1B, will be positioned at 85 degrees east longitude to cover China, Russia, India and the Middle East to provide television broadcast, communications, date transmission and Internet services. However  the satellite still needed an export licence from the United States. (Source: Reuters)

• [March 29, 2001] More Details About the DoubleStar
  The China National Space Administration announces to launch two 270-kg Doublestar solar science and space environment monitoring satellites in late 2002 and mid-2003. One of the satellite will be launched to a low-inclination orbit and the other to a polar orbit in order to provide multidimensional data on the Earth's magnetosphere.   The DoubleStar will co-work with European Space Agency's Cluster satellites. The project was initially proposed by CAS member Liu Zhengxing. (Source: Orbital Report, SpaceChina)

• [March 29, 2001] China to Launch S.Korean Satellite
  China will launch a South Korean satellite in April 2004 in accordance with an agreement signed Wednesday. Under the agreement signed between China's Great Wall Industries Corp. and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite 2 (KOMPSAT-2), will be launched into space on the LM-2C rocket from a launch center in Xichang, China's Sichuan Province, in April 2004. South Korea chose the Chinese rocket after its evaluation of four different launch vehicles showed that the LM-2C is superior in cost and reliability. The KOMPSAT-2 will carry scientific instruments for observation of natural resources, digital    map-making and atmospheric research, and can provide detailed high resolution pictures from an orbit of 685 km above the earth. (Source: Xinhua)

• [March 29, 2001] Bilateral Consultation in Beijing
  China and the United States conducted consultations in March 19-20, under the " Memorandum of Agreement Between the Governments of the People's Republic of China and the United States Regarding International Trade in Commercial Launch Services." This was the first bilateral consultation since the two sides met in Washington D.C. in 1997. During these consultations, the two sides reviewed the implementation of the Agreement, exchanged commercial satellite launching information, and discussed the Agreement itself. The talks were sincere and candid, with both sides improving mutual understanding. Luan Enjie, Administrator of China National Space Administration (CNSA) met with the delegations on March 19. The U.S. delegation will visit space facilities in Xi'an and Shanghai. (Source: Xinhua)

• [March 19, 2001] China and ESA Consider Joint Mission
  The European Space Agency is currently considering favourably a memorandum of agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences for a joint mission with China.   This will be for a Cluster-style solar observation mission to fly March 2003 on a Long March, using European equipment developed in the course of the Cluster missions which eventually flew on the Soyuz last summer.  If approved by ESA in autumn 2001, there will be relatively short lead-in time to get the mission ready for the projected launch time.  It will be called Doublestar. (Source: Brian Harvey)

• [March 19, 2001] OSC to Build Rocsat 3
  Orbital Sciences Corp. was awarded a US$56-million contract by Taiwan's National Space Program Office (NSPO) to develop the RoCSat 3 Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC). The 6-microsatellite remote sensing constellation is scheduled for launch in early 2005. The microsatellites will be based on OSC's flight-proven MicroStar bus. (Source: Orbital Report)

• [March 16, 2001] Shenzhou 2 Orbital Module Did Another Manoeuvre
  On March 15, the Shenzhou 2 orbital module did its second orbital maintenence manoeuvre, raising its orbit from 382x390km to 394x405km. The manoeuvre heppened around 5:04 GMT when the module was over 31.6 deg S, 38.7 deg E. As an independent spacecraft, the Shenzhou 2 orbital module has been working normally for about two months. (Source: Phillip Clark)

• [March 10, 2001] Taikonaut to Fly in 2002?
  The Daily Yomiuri of Japan reported that China plans to launch its first manned spacecraft next year, according to a senior official of a state-owned aerospace company. In a Friday interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dai Zhing Liang of the Chinese General Company of Aeronautics Industry (Editor: it may be China Space Science and Technology Corporarion) said his firm has scheduled three unmanned test launches of the craft prior to the manned launch in the latter half of 2002. Dai, also a deputy of the National People's Congress, is attending the current session of the Congress in Beijijng.

• [March 8, 2001] First Photo of Shenzhou Space Suit
  People's Daily released a photograph today showing for the first time the space suit designed for Shenzhou missions. It notes that in the photo are two designers of the suit who were testing the suit. The article on the People's Daily web site said that taikonaut tranning is underway as planned and will be ready to fly after several unmanned Shenzhou missions. (Note: this suit seems an improved version of an old Russian Sokol KV2 like design before Shenzhou program)

• [March 5, 2001] Kaituozhe 1 Third Stage Engine Successfully Tested
  China Space News reported that the solid engine used on the third stage of the Kaituozhe 1 launch vehicle performed its first ground test firing on February 25, 2001. The test was successful and all parameters meet design specifications. It is believed that the launcher's first and second stage are derived from Chinese ICBM DF-31.

• [March 5, 2001] Satellite SAR Breakthrough
  China announced that it has made breakthrough on the space radar development. A prototype of  satellite based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) was displayed on the exhibition of Program 863 achievement during late February. The radar was jointly developed by the Institute 501 and 504 of CASC and China Academy of Sciences. It paves a way for China's first radar satellite. Program 863 is a high-tech development program kicked off in 1986. (Source: SpaceChina)

• [March 5, 2001] China Kicks Off Space Fragment Project
  China kicked off the space fragment project to establish fundamental capability in space object observation, avoidance and fragment number control in 5 years. The plan includes an observation network with capability of identifying 30cm objects in GEO, a dynamic space fragment database, launch vehicle upper stage fuel control technologies, satellite deorbiting and spacecraft protection technologies. (Source: SpaceChina)

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