23 September 2019
When discussing the rapid development of China’s private space sector and notably launch vehicles, many observers hint at a bubble: an unhealthy number of startups all pursuing the same scope of activities with similar technical solutions, and unsustainable growth not correlated with market demand. Is this justified? In this blogpost I offer some thoughts and engage in a comparison between Chinese and US NewSpace, discussing market size and Sino-foreign space “ecosystem decoupling”.
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2

23 September 2019
China has successfully sent two satellites of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province at 05:10 h on 23 September. Launched on a Long March-3B carrier rocket, the two satellites entered the orbit. They are the 47th and 48th satellites of the BDS satellite family. The new satellites and the carrier rocket were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
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20 September 2019
Taiji 1 satellite, launched on 31 August, has conducted in-orbit experiments on the key technologies related to space-based gravitational wave detection, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced on 20 September. The satellite is China's first such kind of satellite, and has completed its first stage tests in orbit, laying a solid foundation for future gravitational wave observation in space, said Xiangli Bin, vice president of CAS. "This is the first step of China's space-based gravitational wave detection. But there is still a long way to go to realize detecting gravitational waves in space. Chinese scientists will continue to contribute Chinese wisdom to the exploration and human progress," Xiangli said.
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20 September 2019
Chinese researchers have successfully conducted an in situ measurement of lunar dust at the landing site of the country's Chang'e 3 probe. Using a temperature-controlled sticky quartz crystal microbalance onboard the Chang'e 3 lander, researchers from the Lanzhou Institute of Physics determined that the total deposition mass at a height of 190 cm above the lunar surface during 12 lunar daytimes in the northern Mare Imbrium was about 0.0065 mg/cm2.
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