The Chinese Long March-4D rocket orbits 41 satellites simultaneously
Sebastien Le Belzic (in Beijing), edited by Gautier Delomez/Photo credit: Zheng Bin/XINHUA/Xinhua via AFP
The Chinese Long March-4D rocket launched 41 satellites into orbit simultaneously. This is a record that allows China to possess the largest constellation of Earth observation satellites with high accuracy. However, the country is still lagging behind in this field compared to SpaceX.
A satellite craze has swept China and launches have followed one another. China’s Long March-4D rocket launched 41 satellites into orbit once this month, and there will be 35 more by the end of the year. The goal is to have 300 satellites in orbit within two years. These devices of the latest generation, which weigh only 22 kilograms, are used to monitor the Earth with very high accuracy.
China is late on SpaceX
However, managing all these clouds of microsatellites is very difficult. “A whole series of important tasks had to be accomplished: checking the condition of each satellite and rocket, testing their electrical performance, mooring, lifting, transporting, refueling and finally launching,” explains Wen Bin, one of the responsible managers of the most recent launch.
Even if China has a permanent space station in orbit and an armada of military satellites, the country still lags behind in this area of small satellites in low orbit compared to American SpaceX. a companyElon Musk is preparing to create a constellation of 13,000 satellites that can provide Internet services. At this rate, there will soon be a traffic jam in space…
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