22 December 2020
Blaine Curcio of Orbital Gateway Consulting and Jean Deville of China Aerospace Blog summarised for SpaceWatch.Global the most important weekly news from the Chinese aerospace sector. They give details on the launch of the Long March 8 rocket, summarise the most important take-aways from the Chang'e 5 landing and reflect on the Joint Venture between China Eastern, Juneyao Group, and China Telecom - an interesting and lively broadcast!
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Dongfanghour podcast - The only English podcast discussing Chinese aerospace and technology 

22 December 2020
China's new medium-lift carrier rocket CZ-8 took off from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Centre on 22 December at 12:37 BJT. After about 15 minutes, the rocket reached a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 512 km, and then deployed the New Technology Demonstrator 7 experimental satellite and 4 small private satellites. The CZ-8 is capable of transporting various spacecraft to multiple types of orbits ranging from LEO to transfer trajectories to deep-space destinations.
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Big plans for the CZ-8
With the introduction of the CZ-8, the goal is to launch rockets as simply and quickly as possible - meet the demand for economic and frequent medium-size launches. The short preparation time, high launch frequency and planned future reusability would help reduce costs and create a competitive commercial launching service. “Our goal is to launch the rocket as quickly as possible, even a one-click launch … We plan to put the assembly and production together in Hainan or some other place to omit the test, recheck and transport steps,” Commander-in-chief Xiao Yun was quoted by SCMP. “In the future, we want to simplify the procedure to improve efficiency so that a rocket launch mission can be completed by about 40 people in seven to 10 days.” The CZ-8R variant is expected to be reusable with the first stage landing on a floating platform.

 

20 December 2020
The safe landing of Chang'e 5 return capsule with the lunar samples was a big success. But what ever happened to Chang'e 5's ascender, lander and orbiter? In order to unveil more details and stories behind the Chang'e 5 mission, CGTN talked to Professor Yang Yuguang, Vice Chair of the Space Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation, during a live interview on 18 December.
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18 December 2020
The militia cavalry team of Siziwang Banner supported the search operations for the landing of the Chang'e 5 return capsule. A 23 cavalrymen team was assigned to patrol the landing area and support the search for the capsule. Before the landing, ground support personnel and the recovery team were in place to ensure everything around the site was organized and the transfer of the capsule processed smoothly.
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