FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1989
1989 - 2067.PDF
China's fragile grip on space Events in Tiananmen Square have taken China to the brink of a Western economic and technological embargo as complete as that which followed the 1949 Communist Revolution. Plans to commercialise the country's space industry are at risk, Tim Furniss finds. There will be no Chinese satellite launches this year. Officials deny that the hiatus is linked to China's internal turmoil, but the country had planned to launch a communications satellite and a recoverable spacecraft carrying a West German materials-processing payload. The US ban on arms sales following the Beijing massacres has. cast doubt on China's plans to launch US-built communications satellites for commercial customers. The US Government had cleared the launches, but may now rescind its approval. China believes it will still launch Asiasat 1 in 1990 and two Aussat lis in 1992/93, but the satellites' manufacturer, Hughes Aircraft, says it is "watching the situation closely". A US refusal to export the spacecraft would be a serious blow to China's space programme. <^hina launched its first satellite in April 1970, becoming the fifth nation to launch its own spacecraft with its own rocket. Since then the country has launched 25 spacecraft, including recoverable capsules and commu nications and meteorological satellites. Sun Jiadong, chief satellite designer and vice-president of China's astronautics indus try, attributes China's success to three factors. Firstly, he says, the country was committed by Chairman Mao to launching its own satellite in 1958, and was compelled to take a road to. self-sufficiency by Western economic and technological embargos,' and by the withdrawal of Soviet support. Secondly, says Sun, the socialist system has enabled China to concentrate its tech nological skills and limited material resources on branches of science and technology needed by the state. As a result, more than 30 economic, scientific, and military depart ments in 20 provincial regions, and more than 1,000 enterprises and research insti tutes, are invplved in space projects. Thirdly, Sun says, China has lacked the resources to conduct frequent booster test launches, and has had to make the most "detailed studies possible from the most extensive preparations for its limited launch test". This has resulted in a "fewer but better" development principle, he says. China's space industry has been directed towards helping the nation's economy, culture, defence, and scientific base, resulting in tangible benefits, Sun says. Remote sensing has provided data on geology, agriculture, forestry, water resources, environmental monitoring, and cartography. Communi cations satellites have upgraded national tele phone and television networking, and China's first weather satellite recently added a further dimension. CAPSULES FOR SALE In an effort to earn hard currency to regenerate the economy, China actively markets not only launch vehicles, but also spacecraft with recoverable capsules provid ing transportation for microgravity experi ments. China's launch rate is only about two a year, however, and the space programme is subordinate to the country's need to expand the standard of consumer goods and trans port. By adding a third stage to its CSS-3 ballistic missile, China developed a satellite launch vehicle dubbed Chang Zheng (Long March) or CZ-1. The booster reportedly failed in 1969, but on April 24, 1970, it launched the music-broadcasting satellite Tungfanghung. A technology satellite, Shi Jian, followed in 1971. A new CZ-2A booster failed to launch a recoverable satellite, Fanhui Shi Weixing, in 1974, but a non-recoverable technology satellite, Ji Shu Shiyan Weixing, was success fully orbited by FB-1 booster (a lesser version of the CZ-2) in 1975. A successful recov erable mission, using a CZ-2C, took place that same year. Another technical satellite was launched in 1975, followed by two more in 1976. A recoverable satellite mission was flown in 1978, but there was a launch failure of an FB-1 in 1979. Three science satellites were launched simultaneously in 1981, and two recoverable missions were flown in 1982/83. A 1984 attempt to launch a prototype cotnmunications satellite, Shiyan Weixing (STW), into geosynchronous orbit on a new CZ-3 booster was only partially successful, as the satellite failed to reach its correct orbit. The CZ-3 (Long March 3)—in service since 1984 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 July 1989 25
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
