Nebula-1 pushes ahead & SMILE completes development
The CAS-ESA SMILE mission has completed developemnt, Nebula-1 will target a debut flight in 2025, and more!
The past fortnight in China has been slower than most due to a flurry of activity in mid-September as well as the recent National Day celebrations. China’s space industry did manage to make progress toward a couple of projects ahead of the celebrations, along with awarding Wang Yongzhi the highest possible honorary award posthumously. Astronomers are also worried about the Shanghai-backed Qianfan constellation, having published a paper at the end of September.
If there are any problems with translations in this post please reach out and correct me.
Nebula-1 targets Q1 2025 for debut flight
Deep Blue Aerospace flew a high-altitude hop test of its Nebula-1 test vehicle back on September 22nd. That test was largely successful, completing all testing criteria except for a soft landing. Zhao Ya, Deep Blue Aerospace’s Executive President, said the following to CGTN about how the vehicle was lost:
"There was a problem with the engine's thrust control servo tracking command, causing the rocket to land at a height exceeding its design parameters. As a safety precaution, the rocket shutdown command was triggered, resulting in partial damage to its body"
Despite the loss of vehicle in the last test, the company is going ahead with another test in November. This test will fly to approximately 5 kilometers in altitude to verify currently unverified technologies for Nebula-1’s boosters.
Pending the completion of that test, as soon as December a 100-kilometer hop test will be conducted with a Nebula-1 test vehicle, according to Du Pengfei, Chief Technical Designer of the Nebula-1 launch vehicle.
Following both of these tests, a Nebula-1 launch vehicle is reportedly targeting Q1 2025 (January to March) for its maiden flight. This flight had previously been slated for December of this year, with the delay likely a result of the test in September. Deep Blue Aerospace may also be aiming to recover the vehicles first-stage booster on this maiden flight.
Wang Yongzhi posthumously receives award
Wang Yongzhi (王永志), one of China's space pioneers, was posthumously awarded the Medal of the Republic on September 27th. The Medal of the Republic is the highest honorary medal awarded in the People's Republic of China. Awardees are chosen by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and the medal is presented to the recipients by the President of China.
Wang Yongzhi was born on November 17th 1932 in Liaoning province and attended the prestigious Tsinghua University starting in 1952. In 1955 he traveled to the Moscow Aviation Institute for further studies into aeronautics.
Beginning in 1961, Wang began working at what is today known as the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology where he was pivotal in the development of the Dongfeng-2 and Dongfeng-5 ballistic missiles. By 1978 Wang was appointed as the head of the general design department and later became president of the academy in 1986.
Following a gap in the launch market in 1986 after the Challenger Disaster, Wang proposed the Long March 2E rocket. In 1988 the vehicle won its first launch contract and development work began. Eighteen months later the vehicle was ready for launch and successfully lifted of on July 16th 1990 carrying a mass simulator of the Australian Optus B spacecraft and Pakistan's Badr-1 satellite.
In 1992 Wang Yongzhi was named as the first chief planner of China's human spaceflight efforts, then called Project 921. Wang would work in this position for fifteen years overseeing the first six missions and two human spaceflight missions.
In 2007 Wang retired from China's space efforts in an official capacity. During retirement, Wang still offered insights to teams working on the Tiangong Space Station and the crewed lunar landing effort.
“The Party organization gave me the opportunity to participate in the three major events of 'developing ground-to-ground missiles, launching artificial satellites, and sending Chinese people into space', and it was the Party's cause that provided me with a rare opportunity and a broad platform to serve the motherland.”
— Wang Yongzhi in the Tsinghua Alumni Association
Wang Yongzhi passed away on June 11th 2024. Wang Danyang, his wife, said that in his last few months he "still kept talking about things in space, about lunar landing".
This part of the post originally appeared in Cosmic Nxws’ Weekly Dose of Space (29/9-5/10) as part of my obligations to the site.
SMILE completes development work in China
The SMILE, or Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, satellite completed development work in China at the end of September. Work on the spacecraft’s satellite platform module was completed by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
According to the academy, the platform went through system interface and environmental testing. With development and testing completed, the satellite platform is expected to be shipped to the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands in October.
Once in the Netherlands, the satellite platform and payload module will be joined together, along with the various instruments, for final testing ahead of being sent to French Guiana.
The SMILE mission is currently scheduled for launch in 2025 atop of a Vega-C from Guiana Space Centre, located in French Guiana in South America. Once in a high-inclination elliptical orbit, the spacecraft will make quasi-continuous observations of key regions in near-Earth space with both remote-sensing and in-situ instruments. This mission aims to build up a complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with Earth’s magnetosphere.
SMILE is also the most recent collaboration mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
First Qianfan batch worries astronomers
A paper released on September 30th has stated satellites that are part of the Qianfan constellation have an observed magnitude of between 4 and 8. These observations were based off of the first batch of 18 satellites launched in August.
At those magnitudes, the satellites are visible to the naked eye on the ground, similar to Starlink trains. Ground-based observatories and the International Astronautical Union’s Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies from Satellite Constellation Interference recommend a magnitude of 7 or below to mitigate interference.
The current groups of 18 satellites are thought to be part of a test batch in order to understand what changes and improvements will be needed for the satellites ahead of regular deployment and full-capacity production.
The team behind the paper said to SpaceNews that they conducted their study to raise awareness and prompt change in the constellation. Part of the team is also a part of the International Astronautical Union’s Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies from Satellite Constellation Interference group and refused to comment to SpaceNews if they had been in, or attempted to, contact Chinese officials or Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, who operate the Qianfan constellation.
Similar concerns were raised about SpaceX’s Starlink constellation when it began launching. According to SpaceNews, current Starlink satellites have a magnitude of 7 after launch. ‘Direct-to-cell’ Starlink satellites, which began launching this year, are also brighter than current Starlink satellites by a factor of 2.6 once mitigations may be applied.
National Day celebrations continue
China began its National Day (国庆节) celebrations a week ago to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the formal proclamation of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. A week-long holiday began on the 1st of October with it planned to end on the 7th.
As this holiday is ongoing most space companies, commercial and state-owned, have almost no employees at work. Notable exceptions to this are personnel responsible for the operations of the Tiangong Space Station and facility security.
During the holiday, LandSpace’s Weibo account has remained active, celebrating various impressive space missions conducted by China in seven posts. Attached below are the company’s posts from the holiday.
From top left to bottom right the posts are: (1) the DongFangHong-1 satellite during pre-launch preparations ahead of it becoming China’s first artificial satellite on April 24th 1970; (2) the Long March 5 launch vehicle during rollout to celebrate ‘Project 921’ which created the Shenzhou and Tianzhou spacecraft along with the Tiangong Space Station; (3) Yang Liwei (楊利偉) during his walkout ahead of the Shenzhou-5 mission on October 15th 2003, during which he became the first person China sent into orbit; (4) the Long March 3A launch vehicle during fuelling ahead of the launch of the Chang’e 1 mission on October 24th 2007, beginning China’s lunar exploration program; (5) Zhai Zhigang (翟志刚) outside of the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft conducting China’s first spacewalk and debuting the Feitian space suit on September 27th 2008; (6) the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft during its docking with the Tiangong-1 space station on November 3rd 2011, demonstrating China’s ability to dock two spacecraft and assemble larger vehicle combinations on orbit.
For the final day, LandSpace’s post is of the Chang’e 6 spacecraft on the lunar surface back in June. This mission brought back the first samples from the Moon’s far side.
For the readers of China Space Updates in China, I hope you have enjoyed the celebrations and holiday. For all of you, I wish you the best.