Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Our sincere apologies for the late upload of this episode, due to technical issues. Without further ado, the news update from the week of 7-13 December.
1) iSpace making progress in the development of Hyperbola 2
iSpace announced that they had completed the production of the fuel tank for the Hyperbola-2 rocket. The company’s Hyperbola-2 will use liquid methalox fuel, and is China’s first common bulkhead fuel tank for rockets above 3m diameter.
iSpace also completed a week earlier a series of supersonic wind tunnel tests for the vertical landing phase, a crucial moment of the flight with complex aerodynamics and instability.
2) Launch of Long March 11 with 2 CAS satellites
Last week, China saw a launch of a Long March 11 rocket, the 3rd launch of such a rocket in China in 2020. This launch received less cover overall, as it concurred with the Chang’e 5 hype that was taking place at the same time.
This launch of LM-11 took place at Xichang on the 9th of December, and put into orbit 2 smallsats of the GECAM mission (aka Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-Sky Monitor), and initiated by the CAS Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing.
Designated KX-08A and KX-08B, each satellite will embark a number of instruments to detect gamma/x wave bursts in the universe.
3) Great article on C919 Suppliers
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), a think-tank based in DC, published on Dec. 7 a good piece on the Chinese commercial aviation industry, and notably on the poor performance of COMAC, from both an industrial and technical point of view.
According to CSIS, while China admittedly has done admirably in turning itself into a high-tech superpower in a number of industries, commercial aviation is not part of them.
To justify this point, CSIS points to some of the recurring problems of COMAC, including:
- The poor performance of COMAC A/C
- The significant delays that the programs have experienced
- The poor industrial productivity (based on the annual production rate)
- The troubles with certification
- And its reliance on foreign suppliers
All in all, a great piece that we recommend to our viewers, although admittedly we feel that in some areas the paper is overly pessimistic/negative about Chinese commercial aerospace.
4) National Radio and Television Administration Announcement
China’s NRTA announced this week plans for modernization of the country’s broadcast sector. This includes several key phrases, namely “smart business”, “UltraHD/4K”, and also “Satellite internet/converged two-way services” (融合双向业务).
The announcement also hits on the convergence of TV and internet access, that is, most TV can be delivered via internet access. Other points of note in the announcement included a call to build a cloud platform for satellite broadcast (建设直播卫星云平台), and to develop “two-way communications” for satellite broadcast that allow for things like online shopping, smart homes, and digitization of small towns.
Overall, the announcement should be taken as an indication that China wants to modernize its relatively archaic linear broadcast industry.
5) Dongfang Hour reaches 100+ subscribers!
Last but not least, the Dongfang Hour channel has reached 100+ subscribers this week, with a 10% jump in the last few days. While this remains a modest figure, we would like to address a big thanks to our viewers for their support, and hope to bring more valuable content on Chinese aerospace and tech in 2021!
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