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Kaituozhe-1 third launch in 2005?
by
Liss
on 02 Sep, 2009 17:13
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According to my records there were 110 orbital Chinese launch attempts with 101 launch successes (you have to include the Feng Bao launches):
8 - Feng Bao launches (4 failures)
100 - Chang Zheng launches (3 failures)
2 - Kaituozhe launches (2 failures)
I found an interesting note at
http://www.9ifly.cn/sub/viewthread.php?tid=407 regarding a possible third launch failure of KT-1 on June 9, 2005. Unfortunately the only evidence to this is a picture of a special envelope dated that date:
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#1
by
William Graham
on 02 Sep, 2009 19:57
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Can someone translate the text on it?
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#2
by
input~2
on 02 Sep, 2009 21:42
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Can someone translate the text on it?
Above the rocket picture, the sentence reads:
"Commemoration of the third launch of Kaituozhe-1"
At the bottom:
"Taiyuan satellite launch center"
Next to the stamps: "China post post-card"
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#3
by
Satori
on 02 Sep, 2009 23:07
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On the same thread at 9ifly there are at least two tables listing the launch failure. Interesting...
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#4
by
Liss
on 03 Sep, 2009 04:12
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On the same thread at 9ifly there are at least two tables listing the launch failure. Interesting...
The people at 9ifly are in doubts as I understood, so the presumed launch is uncluded into the big table without number.
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#5
by
pippin
on 03 Sep, 2009 06:48
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Is that a Saturn IB on the stamp???
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#6
by
limen4
on 03 Sep, 2009 17:21
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Is that a Saturn IB on the stamp???
It is not the Saturn 1B but the Chinese DF-15 tactical missile.
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#7
by
limen4
on 04 Sep, 2009 14:29
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According to my records there were 110 orbital Chinese launch attempts with 101 launch successes (you have to include the Feng Bao launches):
8 - Feng Bao launches (4 failures)
100 - Chang Zheng launches (3 failures)
2 - Kaituozhe launches (2 failures)
I found an interesting note at http://www.9ifly.cn/sub/viewthread.php?tid=407 regarding a possible third launch failure of KT-1 on June 9, 2005. Unfortunately the only evidence to this is a picture of a special envelope dated that date:
There exist other philatelic covers from various tracking installations (Xian, Nanning) which commemorate the same event. If such a lot of covers exist from independent locations it is very likely that the launch really occur. According to the postmarks which were used the launch happened between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time. A cover issued by the Xian Tracking Center (Fig. 1) shows together with the KT-1 launch vehicle a box shaped satellite with 2 solar panels (Fig 1a). It is very similar to the microsatellite design by CAST (Fig 2) and indeed according to a 2005 presentation by Roberto Battiston the launch of Microsatellite MS-1 was planned for 2005. The same Xian commemorative cover has a text on the reverse side which tells that the satellite was for testing purposes from a low earth orbit.
But more over there seems to be another mysterious KT-1 launch from Taiyuan. Checking an image (Fig 3) of the PS payload captured at the Zhuhai Air Show 2007 and issued on a Chinese blog one can clearly read from the description that there exist 3 satellites of the PS type - KT-1 PS/PS2/PS3. I looked at the CASIC webpage
http://www.casic-sat.com.cn/abouts-1.asp and found that KT-1 PS3 was delivered (to the launch center?) on September 13th 2004. According to the web site the time between delivery and launch of the other 2 other satellites PS and PS2 was nearly one month. One can conclude that the launch of KT-PS3 was planned for October 2004.
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#8
by
Liss
on 07 Sep, 2009 09:21
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limen4, that's extremely interesting!
To my uneducated view, the satellite shown an the Xian cover does not look like PS/PS2/PS3 mockup from Zhuhai'2007.
This -- together with the three references at the CASIC site -- leads me to think of a striking possibility of, maybe, two unknown KT-1 launches: one in October 2004 with PS3 and another in June 2005 with MS-1.
Yet I'd like to remind that covers exist for at least two Chang Zheng launches that haven't occur at all: on 22 Mar 1992 with Optus B1 (HT-F4; launched on 14 Aug 1992 and reissued as HT-F6), and on 02 Apr 1994 with Fengyun-2 (01) (HT-F16).
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#9
by
ek_31
on 07 Sep, 2009 10:46
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#10
by
limen4
on 08 Sep, 2009 18:53
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limen4, that's extremely interesting!
This -- together with the three references at the CASIC site -- leads me to think of a striking possibility of, maybe, two unknown KT-1 launches: one in October 2004 with PS3 and another in June 2005 with MS-1.
It is exactly the same conclusion which I made.
Attached 3 additional commemorative covers of the June 2005 launch.
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#11
by
Liss
on 08 Sep, 2009 19:15
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A view of 34 kg KT-1 PS satellite made by Hangtian Tsinghua Satellite Technology Ltd. (now CASIC Satellite Technology Ltd.):
And official descriptions of the three satellites from
http://www.casic-sat.com.cn/operation1.asp :
KT-1PS星
该星于 2002年7月完成研制。最小系统包括：RF、电源、遥测 遥控；其载荷为：MCU、磁强计。卫星重量：36kg。帆板采用硅太阳电池 ；无OBC载荷。
KT-1PS2星
该星于 2003年7月完成研制。最小系统包括：RF、电源、遥测遥控；其载荷为：MCU、磁强计和OBC。卫星重量：33.5kg。帆板采用砷化镓太阳电池。
KT-1PS3星
该星于 2004年7月开设研制，同年9月完成，创造了3个研制完成一颗载荷星的记录。
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#12
by
Liss
on 08 Sep, 2009 21:26
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#13
by
Liss
on 09 Sep, 2009 12:02
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#14
by
jcm
on 09 Sep, 2009 16:16
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One more question...
It's relatively easy to find an official Chinese report on the KT-1 launch of 2003. For example, http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2003-09/20/content_1091261.htm , or the entry #42 in the year launch table in http://www.space.cetin.net.cn/docs/ht0402/ht0402hthd01.htm :
Interesting - I am not sure how much weight to put on the launch table, it looks like it derives from non chinese sources (maybe from the annual launch list in NK? :-))
And I am skeptical of the 2005 'failure'. The evidence presented is that a launch attempt was planned in 2005. But I think it's not inconsistent with the launch being scrubbed for some reason, as opposed to actually launched.
There could have been some kind of launch preparation damage that trashed the rocket even... so evidence of launch preparation is not evidence that an actual launch occurred (although it's certainly a possibility).
Hence, I'm not going to add a launch entry to my records based on the evidence presented to date.
- Jonathan
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#15
by
limen4
on 09 Sep, 2009 20:20
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One more question...
It's relatively easy to find an official Chinese report on the KT-1 launch of 2003. For example, http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2003-09/20/content_1091261.htm , or the entry #42 in the year launch table in http://www.space.cetin.net.cn/docs/ht0402/ht0402hthd01.htm :
Well, is there in the net any official information regarding the 2002 launch failure? Is there a photo of KT-1 in flight that pre-dates the acknowledged 2003 failure?
Attached from a "official" CASIC fact sheet. It tells only that the Sep 2002 launch was a test.
Concerning the mysterious 2005 launch - I understand the doubts by Jonathan very well. In every case, if launch occured or not, there remains a lot of questions.
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#16
by
ek_31
on 10 Sep, 2009 06:08
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Well, is there in the net any official information regarding the 2002 launch failure? Is there a photo of KT-1 in flight that pre-dates the acknowledged 2003 failure?
老兄看得懂中文，我就不写我的跛脚英文了。
1.在一些专业的刊物上承认了2002年发射的失败，比如说，《中国航天》2003年8期的文章《开拓者固体运载火箭发展规划与实施策略研究》。那次是发射不久就爆炸了。
2.2003年的发射是失败的，4级有问题，卫星没有入轨。但是官方的说法是“飞行试验成功”。
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#17
by
Liss
on 10 Sep, 2009 08:12
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#18
by
ek_31
on 10 Sep, 2009 16:23
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#19
by
limen4
on 10 Sep, 2009 20:08
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One more question...
It's relatively easy to find an official Chinese report on the KT-1 launch of 2003. For example, http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2003-09/20/content_1091261.htm , or the entry #42 in the year launch table in http://www.space.cetin.net.cn/docs/ht0402/ht0402hthd01.htm :
Well, is there in the net any official information regarding the 2002 launch failure? Is there a photo of KT-1 in flight that pre-dates the acknowledged 2003 failure?
Chinese media confirmed that the 2003 launch was not fully succesful but gave not detailed information. Because no satellite was been found in orbit (by US tracking stations) western observers concluded that a failure of the 4th stage happend which caused that the satellite missed the orbit. I was surprised to find on a China philatelic cover, issued by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, the following orbital data of the satellite:
altitude: 307.15 km
inclination: 91,99°
orbital time: 88.7 minutes
How should we interprete this?
