A Long March 4C (CZ-4C) rocket successfully launched the Yaogan 33R (aka Yaogan 33-02) radar/remote sensing satellite at 1544 GMT on 27 December 2020. The spacecraft was thought to be a replacement for the Yaogan 33 lost in a launch failure in 2019. However this is...
Filling a gap in its rocket stable, China’s new medium-lift rocket, the Long March 8 (CZ-8), successfully lifted off on its maiden flight at 0437 GMT on 22 December from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in South Hainan Province, China. The launch carried the...
The last stage of the Chinese Chang’e 5 mission – the attempt to return lunar samples safely to Earth – has been successfully accomplished. After a “skip” trajectory during re-entry, the sample return vessel landed in Inner Mongolia at around 1730 GMT on 16 December....
A Long March 11 (CZ-11) rocket successfully launched a pair of GECAM (Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-Sky Monitor) satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) from the Xichang Satellite Center, China, at 2015 GMT on 9 December 2020. The two...
China successfully launched a Long March 3B (CZ-3B) vehicle carrying the Gaofen 14 Earth imaging satellite into a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit at 0358 GMT on 6 December 2020. The launch took place from the LC3 launch complex at the Xichang Satellite Launch...
While China has come under international criticism for some of its policies, it still retains international admiration for its space exploits. The latest was the launch of its Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission. The Chang’e 5 lunar orbiter/lander/sample return...
