01 April 2020
China's lunar rover Yutu-2, or Jade Rabbit-2, has driven 424.455 meters on the far side of the Moon to conduct scientific exploration of the uncharted territory. Both the lander and the rover of the Chang'e 4 probe have ended their work for the 16th lunar day, and switched to dormant mode for the lunar night due to the lack of solar power, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Center of the China National Space Administration.
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31 March 2020
China's BeiDou navigation system is helping farmers apply fertilizers and pesticides more precisely. An intelligent fertilizer-pesticide distributor, assisted by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and big data technology, has been working in the wheat field in Hancun village in Jiangdu county, east China's Jiangsu Province. Through the remote network technology service platform, the machinery can provide high precision fertilizer distribution.
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30 March 2020
West-East Space blog (https://westeastspace.com/) reposted the article by Denis Kalinin "China Space Station - is it worth it?". Kalinin tries to evaluate whether the efforts of having its own space station will pay off for China. He looks into the motivations by the Soviet Union to establish a permanent presence in space and compares it with China's situation.
He concludes that a direct return-of-investment is not the main driver rather the promotion of progress in science and technology, soft diplomacy and political influence, international cooperation, and national security.
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24 March 2020
A trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship is being tested at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south China's island province of Hainan, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). The experimental spacecraft is scheduled to launch without crew in mid to late April on the maiden flight of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, a variant of the Long March-5, China's largest carrier rocket.
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short footage by CGTN showing the space craft undergoing an earlier impact testing damped by airbags
30 March 2020
Denis Kalinin, science journalist wrote an article for West-East Space blog (https://westeastspace.com/) on the topic how the Soviet-Russian Soyuz space craft compares to the Chinese Shenzhou space capsules. He also tries to answer the question why Shenzhous are not servicing the ISS.
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24 March 2020
China successfully sent a group of new remote sensing satellites into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on 24 March. Belonging to the Yaogan-30 family, this group of satellites was launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket at 11:43 h (Beijing Time). It will work as a constellation for electromagnetic environment detection and related technological tests.
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(correction: the headline stated initially "four" satellites. Most likely, it is the usual triplet of satellites.)