China develops Automated Cargo Spacecraft

[Beidou2020]

China has finished designing its first cargo spacecraft, which will ferry supplies and fuel to the nation's future multi-cabin, manned space station.

The design and technology of the unmanned Tianzhou cargo spacecraft have been approved by an expert panel from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp and the China Academy of Space Technology, company sources said.

Chinese scientists and engineers will soon begin building a production-model Tianzhou.

The spacecraft's development began in July 2012 and is based on the design of the Tiangong-1, China's space laboratory, and Shenzhou manned spacecrafts. Its major tasks will be to transport supplies to and refuel the manned space station.

It will also retrieve waste from the station and the waste will burn up as the spacecraft re-enters Earth's atmosphere, the company said in a statement on the China Manned Space Engineering Project website.

Tianzhou will weigh 13 metric tons, and its cargo capacity will be about 6 tons, Zha Xuelei, deputy chief designer of the Tianzhou system, told China Science Daily.

Tianzhou's first launch will take place around 2016 to serve the Tiangong-2 space laboratory, which is planned to be put into orbit before the end of 2015, Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the nation's manned space program, told Xinhua News Agency.

It will be launched atop the Long March 7 rocket, which is under development, from the newly built Wenchang Launch Center in Hainan province.

A test launch of the Long March 7 and Tianzhou will be conducted later this year, the company said in April.

A cargo transportation system that supplies materials and fuel is key to China building its own space station, which the government plans to be operational around 2020, according to Chinese scientists involved in the project.

Xu Jing, editor of Space International magazine, said: "The technologies required for an unmanned cargo spacecraft are not as sophisticated as those used on manned spacecraft because they do not need life-support systems and more complicated configurations."

She said the United States had used space shuttles to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station but finally decided to decommission all of its shuttles because of the high maintenance costs and lower reliability compared with expendable cargo vehicles.

"To my knowledge, most of the technologies used on the Tianzhou have been tested on previous Chinese spacecraft and are thus very reliable," she said.

The world's first cargo spacecraft, Progress 7K-TG, was developed and launched by the former Soviet Union in 1978.

By the end of 2013, 155 cargo vehicles had been sent to deliver supplies to space stations. Currently, five types are in service, including the European Automated Transfer Vehicle and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle.

 

[TaiShang]

China plans to launch 1st cargo spacecraft as early as mid-April
(Xinhua) February 13, 2017

China plans to launch its first cargo spacecraft via a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket in April, sources said Monday.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft, which departed from north China's Tianjin on Feb. 5, arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province on Monday for assembly and testing, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Consisting of a cargo capsule and a propellent capsule, Tianzhou-1, the first cargo spacecraft independently developed by China, has a take-off weight of about 13 tonnes, up to six tonnes of which is payload. It can remain in space on its own for as long as three months.

It is capable of docking with the Tiangong-2 space lab and refueling it in addition to carrying out experiments and tests.

The Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket is scheduled to arrive at the launch center in March, the CMSA said.

The launch of Tianzhou-1 will be a crucial step for China in building a space station by 2020, as cargo spacecraft are required to ship necessities to astronauts aboard the station.

 

[cirr]

Tianzhou-1

 

[JustHappened]

China's plans launch of first cargo spacecraft in April
China plans to launch its first cargo spacecraft in April, state media reported on Tuesday, taking a step toward its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.

President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing China's space program, saying it was needed to enhance national security and defense. Plans for the maiden voyage of the cargo spacecraft were reported on the front page of the People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft will be carried into space by a Long March-7 Y2 rocket launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China's island province of Hainan, the daily reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency.

The Tianzhou-1 is designed to dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2", which China used to carry out its longest ever manned space mission last October, sending two astronauts into space for a month aboard the laboratory.

The spacecraft can carry 6 tonnes of goods, 2 tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months, the newspaper said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-space-idUSKBN15T0A8


For all the advances China has made in its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, it is still lagging the United States and Russia.

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover landed on the Moon in late 2013 to great national fanfare, but soon suffered severe technical difficulties.

The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis.

 

[samsara]

China's plans launch of first cargo spacecraft in April
China plans to launch its first cargo spacecraft in April, state media reported on Tuesday, taking a step toward its goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022.

President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing China's space program, saying it was needed to enhance national security and defense. Plans for the maiden voyage of the cargo spacecraft were reported on the front page of the People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper.

The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft will be carried into space by a Long March-7 Y2 rocket launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China's island province of Hainan, the daily reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency.

The Tianzhou-1 is designed to dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or "Heavenly Palace 2", which China used to carry out its longest ever manned space mission last October, sending two astronauts into space for a month aboard the laboratory.

The spacecraft can carry 6 tonnes of goods, 2 tonnes of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months, the newspaper said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-space-idUSKBN15T0A8


For all the advances China has made in its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, it is still lagging the United States and Russia.

China's Jade Rabbit moon rover landed on the Moon in late 2013 to great national fanfare, but soon suffered severe technical difficulties.

The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis.

The AMAZING news piece about the cargo spacecraft by the ROTHSCHILD-controlled news agency based in London, the REUTERS, also the holding company of another American-based news agency, the Associated Press (AP).

In this short piece, the REUTERS already highlighted so many remarkable points to always remind its global readers while slapping the Chinese faces to keep them sober and put them in check:

• was needed to enhance national security and defense
• were reported on the front page of the People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper
• For all the advances China has made in its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, it is still lagging the United States and Russia
• China's Jade Rabbit moon rover landed on the Moon in late 2013 to great national fanfare, but soon suffered severe technical difficulties
• it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis

Somehow I think that I'm reading a news coverage on the deadly strategic long range road- and rail-mobile ICBM with MIRV capability DF-41 instead of a way much tamer, cargo spacecraft launching.

I will have to admit this is a cool spin-off and twist... something that the mainstream media in the West do really excel at!!

*** I forget what is the precise technical term to call this kind of reporting in journalism... the news media just reports what a seemingly legitimate factual/news/story/happening etc but then it insidiously implants its sinister ideas/opinions inside the story.

Hmm, must seek time to reread the writing of Edward Bernays, double nephew of Sigmund Freud, known as the pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, the author of the classical reference book titled "Propaganda" (1928).

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." – Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928


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"If you're not careful, the mainstream media will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."