13 May 2020
Experts used China's quantum satellite - Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) - to verify quantum-secure time transfer for the first time, which laid a foundation for building a safe satellite navigation system. The study published on Nature Physics was jointly accomplished by Professor Pan Jianwei from the University of Science and Technology of China and his colleagues. High-precision time synchronization plays an important role in fundamental science and real-life applications, including navigation and positioning.
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12 May 2020
Kuaizhou rocket industrial park, which is based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, has been partially put into operation, according to China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC). After it is fully operational, the park is expected to be capable of completing the assembly and testing for 20 solid-fuelled carrier rockets annually. With construction beginning in May 2017, the industrial park is the first project in Wuhan's national aerospace industrial base, the first commercial aerospace industrial base in China.
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12 May 2020
The 45th satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has started operation in the network after completing in-orbit tests, according to the Satellite Navigation System Management Office. The satellite will provide services in place of the 3rd BeiDou satellite, a geostationary earth orbit satellite of the BDS-2 system. The replacement will help reinforce the BDS-2 system and support a smooth transition from the BDS-2 system to the BDS-3 system. The third satellite will stay in orbit after the replacement, said a source of the office.
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12 May 2020
Space-tracking ship Yuanwang 5 returned to its port on 12 May, after finishing the latest monitoring mission in the Pacific Ocean for the Long March-5B rocket launch. The ship has operated 81 days at sea, sailing over 20,000 nautical miles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no port calls were made during the voyage, and more than 80 percent of crew members did not disembark for over 100 days, said Chen Xiaohua, head of the ship.
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11 May 2020
On 11 May, the empty core stage of the CZ-5B rocket, re-entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, passed directly over Los Angeles and New York before impacting the Atlantic Ocean at location 20 W 20 N, off the West African coast of Mauritania at 15:34 UTC. The spent 18 t core stage was the largest piece of space debris to fall uncontrolled back to Earth since 1991 and the fourth biggest ever. For the launch of the main modules of the China Space Station three more launches of the CZ-5B are required.
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MORE details on SpaceFlight Now by Stephen Clark...