Re: China tested a FOBS?

From: Brian Weeden via Seesat-l <seesat-l_at_satobs.org>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2021 13:35:10 -0400
I suspect that as well, although as reported it was entirely suborbital and
only travelled a couple hundred km. That's a far cry from the claims of
"circled the globe" and FOBS as outlined in the article.


---------
Brian



On Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 1:29 PM Marco Langbroek <marco_at_langbroek.org> wrote:

> I wonder whether there is confusion generated by the July 16 suborbital
> launch from Jiuquan of reportedly a prototype spaceplanes. That was July
> however, not August.
>
> Marco
>
> Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPad
>
> Op 17 okt. 2021 om 16:27 heeft Brian Weeden <brian.weeden_at_gmail.com> het
> volgende geschreven:
>
> 
> I've been trying to figure out what/when this launch was. It's hard to
> tell as the article describes it as both an orbital vehicle ("circled the
> globe") and a hypersonic glider. If it was the former, one would think it
> would have been a space launch, but that could always have been a
> misunderstanding by the reporter.
>
> The end of that FT story has the following line:
>
> The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, which oversees launches,
> on July 19 said on an official social media account that it had launched a
> Long March 2C rocket, which it added was the 77th launch of that rocket. On
> August 24, it announced that it had conducted a 79th flight. But there was
> no announcement of a 78th launch, which sparked speculation among observers
> of its space programme about a secret launch. CAAA did not respond to
> requests for comment.
>
>
> Does that make sense to anyone?
>
> ---------
> Brian
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 10:09 AM Bob Christy via Seesat-l <
> seesat-l_at_satobs.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello Marco
>>
>> I've checked through my notes of airspace closures during July and
>> August and there are some 'orphan' closure zones flagged up around Jiuquan
>> and Taiyuan. Some are near known drop zones but are different in shape and
>> size from the ones we normally see for CZ launches, and they generally
>> don't have the right 'feel'.
>>
>> A launch from Taiyuan to polar orbit has a ground track that crosses the
>> Taklamakan Desert in western China at the end of its first circuit. There
>> are often closure NOTAMS for that area and on some occasions there are
>> accompanying 'corridors' directly back towards Jiuquan/Taiyuan. Those are
>> obviously missile or atmospheric flight hardware tests.
>>
>> Taklamakan is a good area for clandestine operations - remote, and
>> something landing awkwardly or off-target isn't going to do a lot of damage
>> or inconvenience residents.
>>
>> There are two airspace closure NOTAMs for Taklamakan during the
>> July-August period as noted in the FT article. They have similar boundaries
>> and there are some nearby air route closures at the same time.
>>
>> They are August 4 and overnight August 8/9 UTC but there are no matching
>> NOTAMS that might relate to a CZ launch.
>>
>> Unlike the Soviet FOBS tests in the 1960s, there is no tell-tale rocket
>> stage or any debris catalogued.
>>
>> Robert Christy
>>
>> > On 16 Oct 2021, at 20:14, Marco Langbroek via Seesat-l <
>> seesat-l_at_satobs.org> wrote:
>> > 
>> > Intelligence rumour that China last August tested a FOBS (Fractional
>> Orbital Bombardment System) - a missile that briefly goes in orbit, like a
>> satellite, and then is deorbitted to strike a target:
>> >
>> > https://www.ft.com/content/ba0a3cde-719b-4040-93cb-a486e1f843fb
>> >
>> > Marco
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Seesat-l mailing list
>> > http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Seesat-l mailing list
>> http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
>>
>
_______________________________________________
Seesat-l mailing list
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
Received on Sun Oct 17 2021 - 12:36:12 UTC

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Sun Oct 17 2021 - 17:36:12 UTC