Analysis of Developments in the Space Domain
vehicle; and 4) a capsule to return to earth.
of material. Chang’e 5 is not equipped to survive lunar night.
The complexity of Chang’e 5 allows China to test out how to rendezvous and dock spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. The meetup in lunar orbit is meant to test out capabilities needed on future missions. A mission designed to return samples from Mars could certainly draw from Chang’e 5. The Chang’e 5 mission is very
similar in its flight profile to that of NASA’s Apollo missions, which used similar techniques for putting people
on the Moon. This mission could serve as practice for future crewed missions to the Moon.
[5 Dec Update: Chang’e 5 successfully landed on the moon, collected samples and is now returning to the Chang’e 5 lunar orbiter for eventual return Earth. The capsule should land in mid-December.]
— 4 Kleos Space (Luxembourg)commercial reconnaissance satellites
— 4 Lemur small sats for American company Spire
— 1 NanoAvionics R2 technology demonstrator
India is preparing to follow up with launch of the GSAT-12R communication satellite into geostationary transfer orbit in December. ISRO will use the PSLV-XL with larger strap-on boosters for the mission.
500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit. The launch means Galactic Energy becomes the 2nd nominally private Chinese launch company to reach orbit.
Galactic Energy is the fourth Chinese private launch company overall to make an orbital launch attempt, all with light-lift solid launchers. Chinese launch, small satellite and related downstream companies have proliferated in China since a central government policy decision in late 2014 to open portions of the space sector to private capital.
– 14 November 2020: China’s ‘aircraft-carrier killer’ missiles
successfully hit target ship in South China Sea.
-China launched 2 missiles in August that travelled thousands of kilometres and hit a moving ship, near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. (see China produced VIDEO).
China’s ISR constellations are specifically designed to track and target US Naval forces in the region.
functions within a cislunar economy.
Assuring U.S. freedom of action in space demands a prioritized national effort to effectively plan for operations in cislunar space. We must evolve our current thinking from an academic exercise pondering possible distant futures and accelerate action to outpace our primary competitor in cislunar space.
which 1-7 are civilian satellites, and 8-14 are military satellites.”
— “These 14 stars can be said to be “military-civilian integration”
— “The best satellite in the U.S. is Keyhole. Its resolution is 0.1m.
Our Gaofen 11 can also meet this standard.”
Li Dereng: China is moving to an integrated PNTRC concept (Position, Navigation, Timing, Remote sensing, Communications), in three steps: first, a local coverage of the Chinese coasts with 20 LEO sats and three GEO relays, to get a revisit every 15 minutes. Then, a regional coverage of China and the Belt & Road countries with 50 optical, 50 radar and 150 communication satellites. Finally, a global coverage every 5 minutes, with 200 EO and 300 comms satellites.
– American efforts to remain the dominant space power will likely trigger counterbalancing as China attempts to maintain access to space
– Sino-US space relations could enter a period of uncontrolled escalation due to: 1) lack of a mutual restraint system; 2) an existing space law regime that fails to keep pace with a rapidly changing space environment; and 3) techno-environmental factors that create deterrence instability.
– The United States must formulate an actor-specific strategy for China that establishes deterrence stability through non-escalatory and asymmetric means.
– “We’re not good at it [relations with China], because we don’t understand their history and culture.” (Henry Kissinger). Nowhere are these strategic disconnects more apparent than in Sino-US space competition.
