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China Working on Floating Spaceport

posted by martyb on Tuesday September 01 2020, @12:59AM   
from the watching-Elon's-feed dept.

RandomFactor writes:

China currently has four launch centers (three inland and one coastal) and is building a floating one.

China is making progress with a spaceport to facilitate sea-based launch activity and development of rockets, satellites and related applications.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the country's main space contractor, is developing the spaceport in Haiyang City on the coast of the eastern province of Shandong.

The 'Eastern aerospace port' will add to China's four established space launch centers and be a base for sea launches of light-lift solid rockets.

Use of a sea based launch site could reduce safety risks to civilians and also decrease visibility of launches.

Launches from inland sites often see spent stages threaten inhabited areas, requiring expensive safety and cleanup operations.

China's intention to buildout a 'satellite internet' is one of multiple infrastructure initiatives likely to benefit from the new launch center.

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Original Submission

• Starship will also be ocean-launched (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:28AM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday September 01 2020, @01:28AM (#1044789) Journal

  https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2020/08/starship-sn6-hop-super-heavy-coming/ [nasaspaceflight.com]

  Elon also updated the landing leg set-up for Super Heavy [twitter.com], adding “the booster design has shifted to four legs with a wider stance (to avoid engine plume impingement in vacuum), rather than six.”

  This came after a pointer to the future, where Elon confirmed most launches would eventually take place from a platform out at sea. “Will mostly launch from ocean spaceports long-term,” he noted on Twitter. These ocean spaceports would serve several purposes, not least cutting down on the issue of impacts from the firing of 31 Raptors on local communities.

  Double the thrust of Saturn V is a tough thing to deal with.

  In China's case, sea launch could prevent damage to villages:

  Chinese Long March 3B Booster Crushes Building [soylentnews.org]

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