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-lReceived on Sun Oct 17 2021 - 12:36:12 UTC
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