Mysterious orbital launch in China in Tuesday evening, pictures from Microblog can be found here: http://bbs.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=12913&pid=311361&fromuid=24484
New report of Chinese missile intercept test http://english.cntv.cn/2014/07/24/ARTI1406168664316445.shtmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/china-says-third-missile-defense-test-in-four-years-successful.html
Quote from: jcm on 07/25/2014 10:23 pmNew report of Chinese missile intercept test http://english.cntv.cn/2014/07/24/ARTI1406168664316445.shtmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/china-says-third-missile-defense-test-in-four-years-successful.htmlThe original announcement (in Chinese) from China MoD is athttp://www.mod.gov.cn/auth/2014-07/23/content_4524048.htmand..U.S. Says China Tested Anti-satellite Missile
I'll note two things that strike me about this launch.1) It was the first time since 2007 that the US government has publicly said that China conducted an ASAT test.
2) There was no mention in either the US or Chinese statements of this test about a target.
The U.S. government has claimed (loudly!) that China conducted an ASAT test in 2007. I don't think this is the first time it has been saying so.
As it was a missile intercept test, there was even no need to state about a target, which was obvious. Otherwise, how come it could be an intercept test?
Not everyone is convinced China is developing an ABM system. Hans Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, is one of them.“The first [observation] is wondering why China is spending effort and money on developing an anti-ballistic missile defense system given the enormous challenges and expenses the United States and Russia have had to dedicate to their efforts over the years with only partial success to show for it?” He said it seems highly unlikely that Chinese engineers would suddenly be able to overcome those challenges and deploy an effective ABM system.Kristensen said his second observation is that a Chinese decision to develop and deploy an ABM system seems contradictory to China’s well-known opposition to US missile defense plans in the Pacific. He does not believe that a Chinese missile defense system would be able to counter the advanced and large US and Russian nuclear missile forces. It would be a somewhat different matter with India.“If Indian military planners concluded that a Chinese ABM system was capable enough to threaten the effectiveness of India’s small nuclear deterrent aimed at China, it could potentially cause Indian planners to increase the number of long-range missiles it plans to deploy to deter China, or, which would be a worrisome and destabilizing development, begin to develop and deploy MIRVed [multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle] warheads on Indian ballistic missiles to overwhelm a Chinese ABM system,” he said. “In that case, a Chinese ABM system would seem to undermine rather than enhance Chinese security.”
A1296/14 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N380256E0910144-N381135E0920925-N380058E0921135-N375219E0910401 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL. FOLLOW ATC INSTRUCTIONS. SFC - UNL, 07 AUG 02:55 2014 UNTIL 07 AUG 03:36 2014. CREATED: 06 AUG 02:23 2014A1295/14 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N391540E1035356-N391655E1044941-N383347E1045100-N383231E1035548 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL. FOLLOW ATC INSTRUCTIONS. SFC - UNL, 07 AUG 02:55 2014 UNTIL 07 AUG 03:40 2014. CREATED: 06 AUG 02:13 2014
Something non-trivial?QuoteA1296/14 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N380256E0910144-N381135E0920925-N380058E0921135-N375219E0910401 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL. FOLLOW ATC INSTRUCTIONS. SFC - UNL, 07 AUG 02:55 2014 UNTIL 07 AUG 03:36 2014. CREATED: 06 AUG 02:23 2014A1295/14 - A TEMPORARY RESTRICTED AREA ESTABLISHED BOUNDED BY: N391540E1035356-N391655E1044941-N383347E1045100-N383231E1035548 BACK TO START. VERTICAL LIMITS: SFC-UNL. FOLLOW ATC INSTRUCTIONS. SFC - UNL, 07 AUG 02:55 2014 UNTIL 07 AUG 03:40 2014. CREATED: 06 AUG 02:13 2014
Can some of our chinese speaking friends helps us understand the discussion that is going on the 9ifly space forum about a supposed missile launch failure from Jiuquan?
Quote from: Satori on 08/08/2014 07:44 amCan some of our chinese speaking friends helps us understand the discussion that is going on the 9ifly space forum about a supposed missile launch failure from Jiuquan?Well there was some confusion on what happened, but it seems that the pictures of a rocket stage (1st stage?) are from yesterday and was NOT launched from Jiuquan as originally guessed (remember that there was supposed to be a satellite launch today? ). The reported site of the rocket stage debris is in Otog, Inner Mongolia (38.92 N, 107.50 E), which does not match with the track that satellite launch is supposed to take.On the other hand, it DOES fit with the missile launch track out of Taiyuan yesterday. Given the rocket has the standard paint job of satellite launchers, people there are guessing that some kind of sub-orbital test were done by the Long March 2C yesterday towards the west.
A view of the 2 no fly zones aligned with TSLC and the debris site (N385538E1073046) located on the flight path for the August 7 event.
Quote from: input~2 on 08/10/2014 04:10 pmA view of the 2 no fly zones aligned with TSLC and the debris site (N385538E1073046) located on the flight path for the August 7 event.I did done some fast calculations and I see the distance between TSLC and the place the rocket did crashed is only around 356 kilometers / 221 mile from TSLC.Can it be likely that the first stage of the rocket (likely a Long march family rocket) did failed somewhere in mid-flight?
A1409/14 - THE FLW SEGMENTS OF ATS RTE CLSD: 1.B215: N4027.9E09724.1-NUKTI. 2.G470: BIKNO-DUNHUANG VOR'DNH'. FL000 - FL999, 20 AUG 03:40 2014 UNTIL 20 AUG 04:40 2014. CREATED: 19 AUG 14:57 2014
A1408/14 - THE FLW SEGMENTS OF ATS RTE CLSD: 1.Y3: TUSLI-DUMIN. 2.W112: ADMUX-TUSLI. 3.L888:TONAX-LEBAK. 4.Y1:MAGOD-N3507.6E10005.6. FL000 - FL999, 20 AUG 02:00 2014 UNTIL 20 AUG 02:50 2014. CREATED: 19 AUG 14:48 2014