30 October 2022
China is adopting increasingly sophisticated recruitment criteria in selecting the next generation of taikonauts who will be best suited for the more demanding, complex and frequent space missions. The process and standards of taikonaut selection are changing based on the goal of the space mission, the scale of the project and the development of technology as China advances its understanding of manned space travel. Though their tasks may vary, there are generally three types of astronauts: pilots, engineers and payload specialists. China is selecting all three for its fourth batch of taikonauts.
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29 October 2022
On 29 October, at 09:01 BJT, a CZ-2D rocket launched the Shiyan 20C satellite from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre into orbit. The satellite will be mainly used for in-orbit verification of new technologies such as space environment monitoring. Shiyan 20C was designed and built by the Shanghai-based Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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24 October 2022
In the new episode of the Dongfang Hour channel, Jean Deville gets into the details of the Mengtian module's capabilities. Mengtian is the 3rd and final component of China's 60-ton space station. It will launch on 31 October 2022, an event that he will be covering with a live stream. The current launch time for the Mengtian Space Laboratory (aka Experimental Module 2) is on 31 October at 7:25 UTC (NOTE: to be confirmed by an official NOTAM). For the live coverage follow this link: https://youtu.be/-YAd2eSuHaM
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RELATED: Mengtian space lab to undergo final tests before launch
25 October 2022
The Mengtian space lab module and its CZ-5B carrier rocket were moved to a service tower in the morning of 25 October to undergo final tests before their planned flight in the coming days, according to the CMSA. The agency said in a brief news release that prelaunch preparation work is underway at the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on Hainan island.
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25 October 2022
Carbon dioxide monitoring satellite TanSat, launched in 2016, has produced its 1st batch of human-caused carbon dioxide emission (CO2) signatures, offering a scientific basis for the country's efforts to combat global warming. The journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences published a paper which introduces the first attempt to detect anthropogenic CO2 emission signatures using CO2 observations from TanSat and NO2 measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite. The analysis focusses on 2 selected cases in Tangshan, China and Tokyo, Japan. It was found that the TanSat XCO2 measurements have the capability to capture the anthropogenic variations in the plume and have spatial patterns similar to that of the TROPOMI NO2 observations.
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