10 July 2020
China now has more than 100 private space companies that are creating reusable rockets, sending payloads into their pre-set orbits and quickly catching up with global leaders such as American-owned SpaceX. Professor Yang Yuguang from China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, and Vice Chair of IAF Space Transportation Committee told CGTN that China will have private company better than SpaceX sooner or later. "You see they are already very innovative and very active in developing new technologies." He also believes there will be no essential conflicts between private companies and state-owned enterprises because the enormous size of the market potential. "In the upstream and downstream, there are more such examples. You can choose the components, parts, devices or subsystems from either the state owned companies or from the private companies. For the downstream such as applications you can see more companies in China already engage in providing services related to Earth observation, communication and so on," said Yang.
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10 July 2020
China successfully sent a commercial telecommunication satellite, known as APSTAR-6D, into a planned orbit from the southwestern Xichang Satellite Launch Center on 09 July. The APSTAR-6D telecommunication satellite was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 20:11 BJT, according to the centre. The satellite was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
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report on CGTN with more photos: China launches most advanced commercial communication satellite
10 July 2020
China's Kuaizhou-11 carrier rocket suffered a failure during its maiden flight on 10 July. The rocket was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 12:17 BJT, but a malfunction occurred during the flight. The specific cause of the failure is under further analysis and investigation. Kuaizhou is a low-cost solid-fueled carrier rocket with high reliability and a short preparation period. With a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, the rocket was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.
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07 July 2020
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) confirmed on 7 July that the first data was successfully received from the newly launched Gaofen high-resolution multi-mode imaging satellite. The ground station in Beijing's Miyun District first tracked and received the downlink data on 3 July. The ground stations in Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Sanya in Hainan Province, as well as the China Remote Sensing Satellite North Pole Ground Station, have also confirmed reception of the satellite data. Until 6 July 1,012 GB were transmitted from the satellite which are being processed.
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07 July 2020
The first base station with a ground-based augmentation system was completed in Urumqi, the capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The station, built by the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co Ltd, will offer high-precision positioning timing and emergency communication for the electricity industry. It's augmentation system can increase positioning precision to centimeter-level dynamically and millimeter-level statically.
The construction of the base station in Xinjiang is part of the project launched by the State Grid, which aims to build 1,200 Beidou base stations to provide high-precision positioning, timing, and emergency communication services for the electricity industry.
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01 July 2020
Recently, China Great Wall Industry and the Hong Kong Aerospace Science and Technology Group (HKATG) signed a "strategic cooperation agreement". HKATG plans to purchase the "Golden Bauhinia" series of low-orbit satellite systems, supporting ground facilities and related from China Great Wall Industries Services. The two sides jointly carry out "Golden Bauhinia" series of satellite constellation system design and planning, satellite design, development, testing, launch and orbit delivery. In addition, both parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in related fields such as commercial deep space exploration, data application services and product promotion, aerospace talent training and capacity building, and use the CGWIC's commercial aerospace channels and international advantages to jointly explore the market.
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