18 November 2017
China has honored Nan Rendong, founding scientist of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), with a posthumous title of "role model of our times." The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced the decision on 17 November. Nan had worked as the chief scientist of a team who selected the site for FAST and oversaw its construction since 1994, before his death due to sickness in September at the age of 72.
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15 November 2017
China plans to put four more Fengyun-3 meteorological satellites into orbit between 2018 and 2021, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) announced 15 November. The Fengyun-3, including a morning orbit satellite, an afternoon orbit satellite and a precipitation measuring satellite, will form a network of low-orbit meteorological satellites to enhance the monitoring of atmospheric humidity and temperature, greenhouse gases, wind fields and precipitation, said Zhou Xubin with the CASTC.
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15 November 2017
China launched a new meteorological satellite, Fengyun-3D, on 15 November at 2:35 a.m. Beijing Time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province. A Long March-4C rocket carried the satellite into space. The satellite has entered its orbit. Fengyun-3D is one of China's second generation of Polar-Orbiting Meteorological Satellites, which can provide global three dimensional all-weather and multi-spectral remote sensing images.
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China's new meteorological satellite monitors global carbon emissions
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14 November 2017
Yang Baohua from the China Aerospace Science and Technological Corporation (CASC), a state-owned entity that develops and manufactures spacecraft and launch vehicles, said the company is “ready to provide cheaper and faster low-earth orbit rocket launches”. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party‘s mouthpiece, quoted Yang as saying: “The price could be as low as $5,000 per kilogram and the pre-launch preparation will only need a week.” “We are quite competitive,” ISRO spokesperson Deviprasad Karnik said, responding to China’s plans. Reacting to China’s plans to drastically reduce launch costs, he said not only is the Indian agency “competitive”, but it is working to reduce the cost of access to space through new technology. The effort is to bring down launch costs to “one-tenth” of what they are now, the official said.
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