Dongfanghour: Why Chinese Rockets Drop White Fragments at Launch
19 April 2022
Welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour! Jean Deville explains in this episode the story behind the mysterious white fragments that fall off (some) Chinese rockets during launch. This question is asked very frequently about Chinese rockets :) If you like to support Jean and Blaine, maybe you would like to buy them a coffee?
MORE...
Chinese space station themed kite flying welcomes return of Shenzhou 13 crew
17 April 2022
Kites themed on China's Tiangong space station fly in the sky to celebrate the successful return of 3 taikonauts at the Weifang International Kite Festival, in east China's Shangdong Province, on 17 April 2022. Weifang is the city of kites. The kite has several parts and a Shenzhou space craft can be guided to dock with the bigger part of the kite, representing the Tiangong space station and an astronaut performing an extravehicular spacewalk (animated with a motor). The kite has a lenght of 160 m and a team of 20 kite artists has worked on it for 2 months. The space station complex has a dimension of 6 x 3.5 m.
MORE...
link to WeChat news story with video sequences of the kit
Press Conference on the CSS/SZ-13 achievements and upcoming Shenzhou missions
17 April 2022
On 17 April, The State Council Information Office gave a press conference on the progress of the construction of the Chinese Space Station. Hao Chun, Director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, gave on overview on the upcoming tasks for finalising the assembly of the CSS. The 2 science modules will be launched in the 2nd half of 2022, during the stay of the SZ-14 mission. The SZ-15 mission has to verify the operational functionality of the modules. Both crews are assigned but the names were not revealed. For the 1st time SZ-15 will rotate with SZ-14 in orbit, to start the permanent occupation of the CSS. Per year, 2 crews will stay for 6 months on the CSS with an overlap of several days.
link to press conference with Chinese transcript
http://www.scio.gov.cn/xwfbh/xwbfbh/wqfbh/47673/48121/index.htm
MORE...
details on the Wentian and Mengtian science lab modules
details on the crewed missions
"Absolutely yes.": Vice Chief Designer Bai Linhou on whether China's Tiangong can become space outpost for mankind
16 April 2022
Will China's Tiangong space station become a station shared by all mankind? Bai Linhou, Vice Chief Designer of the CSS, said "absolutely yes" in an exclusive interview with the Global Times, as the space station can be expanded technically and has reserved docking hatches.
Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, said in a recent interview that China's space programme is "good and fast," and that he and his colleagues are willing to participate in China's space programmes if China allows it.
Dmitry Rogozin, Head of Roscosmos, also said in an interview with Chinese media that China and Russia can cooperate in the field of manned spaceflight. China and Russia can explore the construction of new modules and cabins. For Rogozin's idea, Bai said technically China's space station can be expanded by adding more cabins. "It is workable, but needs to match current cabins."
MORE...