10 December 2020
Tianwen-1, which was launched in late July and has been in space for 139 days, is expected to be captured by the gravity of the Red Planet around the Chinese Spring Festival in mid-February, its developer China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) said on 9 December. The probe, launched on July 23, has conducted three orbital corrections and a deep-space maneuver.
MORE...

09 December 2020
China's satellite navigation and positioning industry gained a total output value of 345 billion RMB (about 52.8 billion USD) in 2019, according to the latest report. The sector's output value is expected to hit 400 billion RMB in 2020, according to the report released by the China Satellite Navigation Office on the construction and development of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). Over the past decade, China has seen the total output of its satellite navigation and positioning industry grow by an annual average of more than 20 percent, read the report.
MORE...

08 December 2020
China and Nepal jointly announced on 8 December 2020 that the data collected during the latest expeditions by Nepalese and Chinese teams to Mt. Everest (Mt. Qomolangma) lead to the result that the height of the mountain is 8,848.86 m. A Chinese survey team reached the summit on 27 May 2020 and remeasured the peak height. Nepali surveyors reached the top of the mountain in May 2019. For the determination of the height - among other data - 343 GNSS point data, including Beidou data, were processed.
MORE...

07 December 2020
Guo Hongfeng, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the biggest scientific value in the Chang'e 5 mission lies in the lunar rocks and soil to be brought back by the robotic probe. "Research on lunar samples is one of the most important approaches for us to know about the past, present and future of the Moon, and it also helps a lot when scientists investigate the evolutions of other members of our solar system." Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior adviser to China's lunar program and its former chief scientist, said that if mining the moon for helium-3 and obtaining nuclear power from it becomes a reality, moon resources could be used to generate power for more than 10,000 years. Li Xiongyao, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Center for Lunar and Planetary Sciences, said lunar soil also poses a potential hazard to spacecraft and astronauts landed on the moon, so studying its characteristics helps in coming up with precautionary measures and preventing risks.
MORE...

08 December 2020
The ascent stage of the Chang'e 5 lunar probe was commanded for a deorbiting manoeuvre on 8 December at 6:59 BJT and made a controlled landing at 7:30 BJT in the preset landing area at about 0° longitude and 30° South latitude on the Moon's surface. Experts from the National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center said that the Chang'e 5 ascender has successfully completed its mission. The controlled deorbiting and landing of the Moon can prevent it from becoming space junk and avoid affecting the international community's subsequent lunar exploration missions.
MORE...
news in Chinese on Science&Technology Daily

06 December 2020
The landing process of Chang’e 5 is different from that of its two predecessors, Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 in certain aspects. During its landing process, the probe reduced its speed, adjusted its position quickly, continued approaching the lunar surface, hovered while avoiding obstacles and descended at a slower speed before a final fall on the Moon's surface. Considerations for the suitable landing spot were also driven by the need for being a good "launch site" for the ascent stage.
MORE...