Tag: Wenchang
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Experimental Chinese cargo return capsule malfunctions during re-entry
Artist’s illustration of the experimental cargo return vehicle. Credit: CCTV An experimental cargo return craft launched as a secondary payload on China’s Long March 5B rocket malfunctioned during its return to Earth on Wednesday, while an unpiloted prototype for the country’s next-generation crew capsule continues raising its orbit before its scheduled landing Friday, Chinese officials…
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China announces failure in first launch of new Long March 7A rocket
This image of the Long March 7A rocket was posted on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform. A Chinese Long March 7A rocket failed to place a secret payload into orbit Monday, casting doubt on planned flights by the country’s other launchers that use similar engines. Chinese state media confirmed the launch failure Monday, but…
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China’s first robotic resupply freighter transferred to launch pad
A Chinese Long March 7 rocket rolled out to its launch pad at the Wenchang space center on China’s Hainan Island on Monday. Credit: Xinhua/Ju Zhenhua Chinese engineers rolled out a Long March 7 rocket to a seaside launch complex on Hainan Island in the South China Sea on Monday, aiming to fire a robotic…
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China sets November launch for lunar sample return mission
File photo of the moon seen from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA China plans to launch a robotic mission to return samples from the lunar surface, the first such mission in four decades, in November on top of the country’s new heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket, according to state media reports. The government-run Xinhua…
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Video: Long March 5 rocket lifts off on maiden flight
China debuted its new Long March 5 rocket Thursday with a successful nighttime blastoff on top of 2.4 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust from the country’s new Hainan Island spaceport. Powered by 10 engines, the 187-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket took off at 1243 GMT (8:43 a.m. EDT; 8:43 p.m. Beijing time) and sent an experimental satellite…
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China launches Long March 5, one of the world’s most powerful rockets
The Long March 5 rocket takes off at 1243 GMT (8:43 a.m. EDT) on Thursday. Credit: Xinhua China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket fired into space on a successful inaugural flight Thursday, debuting a brand new launcher that can carry twice the payload of any other Chinese booster and setting a keystone for the country’s…
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Long March 5 heavy-lifter ready to join China’s rocket inventory
China is ready to debut a heavy-lifting rocket rivaling the biggest boosters in the world Thursday, paving the way for a backlog of missions to loft massive space station modules, send deep space probes to the moon and Mars, and perhaps deploy commercial satellites. The Long March 5 rocket is bigger than anything else in…
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Prototype for new Chinese human-rated spacecraft lands in desert
The sub-scale re-entry capsule for China’s next-generation human-rated spacecraft landed in the Inner Mongolia region at 0741 GMT (3:41 a.m. EDT; 3:41 p.m. Beijing time) Sunday. Credit: Xinhua A sub-scale landing craft for China’s next-generation crew capsule parachuted back to Earth on Sunday, one day after rocketing into orbit aboard the country’s new Long March…
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China’s new Long March 7 rocket successful on first flight
The new kerosene-fueled Long March 7 rocket rocket, developed to become a workhorse for a planned Chinese space station and the country’s clandestine military space program, flew into orbit Saturday on its inaugural flight from a launch base on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. Burning a combination of rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen,…
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China’s most powerful rocket set for maiden flight
The Long March 7 rocket, standing 174 feet (53 meters) tall, emerged from its vertical assembly building to travel to a launch pad at the new Wenchang spaceport Wednesday. Credit: Xinhua A brand new Chinese launcher powered by kerosene-burning rocket engines could take off on its first flight as soon as Saturday, also debuting a…