Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
(Editor's note: The Easter holidays have been playing havoc with my schedule so the reports for this one and another launch has been delayed by 10 days. Especially since this is a Chinese launch that no-one really cares.) :rofl:
The last week of March has packed in lots of spacecraft launches - 8 within 6 days! Out of the 8, 4 of them were related to navigation satellites - a testimony to the importance and vast scale of such systems that are (or will be) providing signals to guide you to your destinations.
After the Americans, the Europeans and the Indians all sent fresh satellites to orbit, another big player in the GNSS arena has joined the party as well - and one that has been very quiet lately. For the Chinese has came out of the preparation and ground development and kicked off the mass deployment for their own BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)!
The hiatus of satellite deployment since 2.5 years ago, where the Chinese prepares for the final phase of development for one of the world's "big 4" global satellite navigation systems, was finally broken on March 30 when a Long March 3C rocket went off from pad 2 at Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 13:52 UTC.
But there's something unusual about this launch. There was no official report about the launch until 6 hours after T-0! :shifty: This isn't an indication of anything wrong though, for both the satellite and the rocket have parts that are completely new.
First about the rocket - there's an extra 4th stage on top of the stock Long March 3C! For the very first time, the Chinese has deployed their own long mission liquid fuel upper stage for use. The YZ-1 upper stage (Yuan Cheng in Mandarin means expedition) is the answer for a "Chinese Fregat" upper stage for direct insertion missions to medium and geosynchronous orbits, using hydrazine fuel just like its Russian counterpart (though it is a bit smaller with a lower thrust engine).
After the lower 3 stages put the satellite and YZ-1 into an inclined geosynchronous transfer orbit with apogee at 25000 km, the YZ-1 made 2 burns - the 1st one to increase the apogee to GSO altitude and the 2nd 5+ hours later for circularizing the orbit - to put the first 3rd generation BDS navigation satellite into the planned 55 degree inclination geosynchronous orbit. Separation of the payload came 5 hours 42 minutes after launch, a record for the Chinese (though the US and Soviets have done that since the 1970s).
And with a new phase of development came a new model of satellites - this one is developed by one of the centres under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (which will provide at least a portion of the 30+ satellites needed to complete the system), and is a smaller one than previous Chinese ones (closer to the size of the Galileo satellites than the bigger GPS ones). This one, and another 4 more planned for launch this year, are development models that will be tested prior to the mass deployment phase in the next 3-4 years.
Stay here for more reports about the Great Chinese Spaceflight Enigma (TM)! :tiphat:
NASASpaceflight.com: Long March 3C in secretive launch with new Upper Stage
]Spaceflight Now: Chinese navigation system enters new phase with successful launch
The last week of March has packed in lots of spacecraft launches - 8 within 6 days! Out of the 8, 4 of them were related to navigation satellites - a testimony to the importance and vast scale of such systems that are (or will be) providing signals to guide you to your destinations.
After the Americans, the Europeans and the Indians all sent fresh satellites to orbit, another big player in the GNSS arena has joined the party as well - and one that has been very quiet lately. For the Chinese has came out of the preparation and ground development and kicked off the mass deployment for their own BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)!
The hiatus of satellite deployment since 2.5 years ago, where the Chinese prepares for the final phase of development for one of the world's "big 4" global satellite navigation systems, was finally broken on March 30 when a Long March 3C rocket went off from pad 2 at Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 13:52 UTC.
But there's something unusual about this launch. There was no official report about the launch until 6 hours after T-0! :shifty: This isn't an indication of anything wrong though, for both the satellite and the rocket have parts that are completely new.
First about the rocket - there's an extra 4th stage on top of the stock Long March 3C! For the very first time, the Chinese has deployed their own long mission liquid fuel upper stage for use. The YZ-1 upper stage (Yuan Cheng in Mandarin means expedition) is the answer for a "Chinese Fregat" upper stage for direct insertion missions to medium and geosynchronous orbits, using hydrazine fuel just like its Russian counterpart (though it is a bit smaller with a lower thrust engine).
After the lower 3 stages put the satellite and YZ-1 into an inclined geosynchronous transfer orbit with apogee at 25000 km, the YZ-1 made 2 burns - the 1st one to increase the apogee to GSO altitude and the 2nd 5+ hours later for circularizing the orbit - to put the first 3rd generation BDS navigation satellite into the planned 55 degree inclination geosynchronous orbit. Separation of the payload came 5 hours 42 minutes after launch, a record for the Chinese (though the US and Soviets have done that since the 1970s).
And with a new phase of development came a new model of satellites - this one is developed by one of the centres under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (which will provide at least a portion of the 30+ satellites needed to complete the system), and is a smaller one than previous Chinese ones (closer to the size of the Galileo satellites than the bigger GPS ones). This one, and another 4 more planned for launch this year, are development models that will be tested prior to the mass deployment phase in the next 3-4 years.
Stay here for more reports about the Great Chinese Spaceflight Enigma (TM)! :tiphat:
NASASpaceflight.com: Long March 3C in secretive launch with new Upper Stage
]Spaceflight Now: Chinese navigation system enters new phase with successful launch
