Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Without further ado, the news update from the week of 14-20 December.

1) Long March 8 Launch on Sunday 20/12
Sunday morning (20/12/20) saw plans for the very first launch of China’s latest medium lift launch vehicle, the Long March 8, from Wenchang Launch Center. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed on Sunday due to a tropical storm, but we expect the launch to occur in the coming days.
The payloads will be:
- a classified EO technology satellite by CAST (XJY-7)
- Ethiopian ETHSAT6U (cubesat), in cooperation with Beijing Smart Satellite
- Guodian Gaoke’s Tianqi-12 satellite (for its IoT constellation)
- 2 satellites of Spacety: one in cooperation with CETC (Haisi-1) and the other a technology verification satellite

The LM8 is actually based on a set of rather proven building blocks, used in LM5-7, namely the kerolox YF-100 engines in it’s core stage and boosters (used also in LM 5, 6 and 7), and the YF-75 for the 2nd stage, a hydrolox engine employed already on the LM3 as well as the LM5.

While the upcoming launch is going to be expendable, it is noteworthy that LM8 will (eventually) be CASC’s first attempt at reusability. As was unveiled in 2018, CASC plans to have the first stage, together with the two side boosters, perform vertical landing, throttling the engine and using grid fins for control during the landing stage. This will no doubt mean modifications on the YF-100 to enable the engines to run at lower thrust, to be restartable multiple times.

2) Chang’e-5 Return to Earth
China’s Chang’e 5 return capsule returned to Earth in the evening of December 16th, after a perilous re-entry in the atmosphere. The capsule was located rapidly by search teams and helicopters (equipped with infrared cameras). This was live-streamed on Chinese media, and was absolutely fascinating to watch. On the 19th of December, a ceremony was held to remove the sample container and weigh the sample, which turned out was 1,731 kg as opposed to the expected 2 kg.

3) New JV between China Eastern, Juneyao Group, and China Telecom
On December 16th 2020, China Eastern, Juneyao Group, and China Telecom jointly established a joint-venture called KDLink, which is to focus on connected aircraft.
The press release doesn’t discuss too much in detail the projects of the JV (other than “product innovation, technology innovation and new application”). But China Eastern has been one of the pioneering airlines in China, with approximately half of the connected aircraft in China belonging to the Shanghai-based company. The joint-venture with Juneyao Airlines, another Shanghai-based airline that also operates connected aircraft, could mean a new wave of deployment of (satellite?) connectivity among both airlines’ fleets.

4) Baidu is Considering Making its own Electric Vehicle
Or outsourcing to other manufacturers, as the case may be. Either way, an article appeared this week quoting “three people with knowledge of the matter” saying that Baidu is considering developing their own electric car through collaboration, potentially with Geely. 

Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, was the first billionaire in China to talk about the need to open the space industry to private investment, something he was doing as early as 2014. 

We thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to seeing you next time!

---------------------------------------------

Follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter (https://twitter.com/DongFangHour), as an audio podcast, and on our official website: https://www.dongfanghour.com/