Aero & Space Weekly News Round-Up - Ep.13 (21st - 27th Dec. 2020)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Without further ado, the news update from the week of 21-27 December:
1) Long March 8 Launch (follow-up)
The Long March-8 launched for the first time on 21 December, with the payload including 5 satellites. As we discussed in more detail on last week’s episode 12 of the China Aero/space News Roundup, the payload was diverse, with commercial companies, an Ethiopian satellite, and a couple of government/CAS payloads. Some additional information was publicized in the days following the launch that are worth noting.
First, the Tianqi-8 satellite from Guodian Gaoke was apparently launched partly in partnership with Ping’an, possibly China’s largest insurer.
Another satellite of note on the LM-8 launch was the Haisi-1 satellite from Spacety, which was a sort of mini-SAR satellite. SAR remains a relatively less-developed part of the EO sector in China, with optical being a lot more developed.
2) News announcements regarding the calendar of the Chinese Space Station
On December 25th, a ceremony was held in Changsha for the transfer of the Shenzhou-10 capsule to the Province of Hunan. Shenzhou 10 is a mission that took place in 2013.
Before the ceremony, a journalist of China Space News had the opportunity to interview one of the high profile attendees of the day, Zhou Jianping, the chief engineer of China’s crewed spaceflight program. Zhou Jianping gave some very useful insights on the upcoming timeline for the Chinese Space Station.
3) China Space News article on Moon resources
China Space News published a piece last week summarizing the economic benefits of lunar resources. While not much of the China Space News article is really news, it’s interesting to note that it comes a week after the end of the Chang’e 5 mission, which successfully returned lunar samples to Earth. It does suggest that one of the main objectives of the lunar exploration program is to investigate the viability of lunar resources mining. This has been reflected already in multiple interviews of Chinese space industry officials in the past (such as Bao Weimin or Ouyang Ziyuan).
4) China Satcom further verticalizing & pivoting to mobile broadband: Interview of Sun Jing (GM of China Satcom)
Interesting interview of Sun Jing on the 24th of December, discussing the changes in China Satcom’s strategy in recent years. Sun mentions in 2018, ChinaSat acquired the first-class national basic telecommunications license, at which time they chose to work alongside the telecom operators to cover areas not possible to cover with terrestrial fiber, as opposed to potentially competing with them as a telco.
In particular, Sun emphasizes the extent to which ChinaSat is focusing on IFC, including the recent founding of Xinghang Hulian (星航互联), an IFC-focused subsidiary.
5) Completion of the static tests of the Chinese MA700 regional jet
Xi’an Aircraft Corporation completed the static testing of its next generation regional turboprop aircraft, the MA700 (MA = modern ark or 新舟 in Chinese), on December 19.
With the completion of the static tests, the MA700 should be able to begin flight testing in 2021.
This has been another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup. Thanks for watching, and we wish you a wonderful year in 2021!
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