Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 12/26/2015 02:28 amQuote from: Liss on 12/25/2015 07:48 pmWell, now official Chinese publications say that in fact Laosat-1 is based on DFH-4S, not DFH-3B.If I understand correctly, the two names actually referred to the same satellite bus.Is it stated for sure somewhere?I see that "DFH-3B is an updated version of DFH-3 bus".I see that "DFH-4S and DFH-4E are inherited from DFH-4".I believe DFH-3 and DFH-4 are different enough to have a single descendant :-)My impression is that DFH-3B refers to a DFH-3 upgrade which still fits into CZ-3C while DFH-4S is a lighter and smarter version of DFH-4 which still requires CZ-3B. You see, Laosat-1 is a very modest vehicle with a 300 kg payload but it still weighs 4000 kg.
Quote from: Liss on 12/25/2015 07:48 pmWell, now official Chinese publications say that in fact Laosat-1 is based on DFH-4S, not DFH-3B.If I understand correctly, the two names actually referred to the same satellite bus.
Well, now official Chinese publications say that in fact Laosat-1 is based on DFH-4S, not DFH-3B.
Essentially this is the only valid hypothesis -- one cannot explain parallel use of the two names during all the five years of the development unless they refer to the same design. (Yet I'm not sure these were the same back in 2010.)But my point is that Laosat-1 was designed by downsizing DFH-4 and not by enlarging DFH-3.