Do you want to be space operator? Move to a poor country.

If you don’t mind taking lessons from the Chinese, and moving to Pakistan, Nigeria, Bolivia, or some other poor country, you too could learn all you could ever want about space operations. According to SpaceDaily.com, China has realized that in order to increase the chances of their satellite export contracts being accepted and perhaps extended […]

Another secret Chinese launch

A Chinese Long March 2C rocket boosted another satellite with unknown intentions into orbit earlier today. You can read all about it from NASASpaceflight.com’s posting: Chinese Long March 2C lofts Yaogan Weixing-18 satellite. According to the article, this launch was not officially announced. There’s not too much advertised about Yaogan Weixing-18, although NASASpaceflight.com’s article does a great […]

Chinese grappling satellites?

I do hate posts like Gizmodo’s, asserting something that when you drill down, may or may not be true. You just can’t tell. But I guess that’s what link bait is: something to get people to click on, true or not. And when you drill down to the Washington Free Beacon post, it’s certainly not clear […]

Surprise Chinese launch places another “experimental” satellite in orbit

Yup, the Chinese decided to surprise everyone with the launch of a Long March 4b, according to this NASASpaceflight.com article. I can’t even imagine the hullabaloo this created on our SBIRS (Space Based Infrared System) operators if this rocket’s intense heat source was really not expected. Imagine seeing something emerge from a not-so-friendly country–something big that […]

Chinese Operationally Responsive Space

A few days ago, I published this article regarding China’s fascination with and possible forays into the world of stealth satellites. And there’s really no reason for satellites to be stealthy other than for military reasons. If you’ll also remember, I repeated the “Want China Times” article‘s description of China’s progression in “quick replenishment” launch […]