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Cosmic Penguin

@cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social

440 followers 370 following 1.2K posts

Astronomy & spaceflight weeb penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Starship x Space Launch System shipper. Chinese spaceflight news hunter.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight, Quarter 4 2025 Issue - What The......?????

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1h

...does he even know the progress? Heck does he even know how the Chinese crew lunar lander looks like? x.com/SecDuffyNASA...

Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 5h

More Chinese launches to orbit are on the horizon with at least 3 confirmed for the remainder of this week. But before that, here's a quick review of the fun-to-watch launch of the 2nd Gravity-1 launch a few days from LSP Orienspace & SpaceLens: weibo.com/tv/show/1034...

Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

Well then a surprise Chinese launch has thrown the start of the Q4 thread in disarray. Anyway here it is!

Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight, Quarter 4 2025 Issue - What The......?????

Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

The wider 4 meter diameter payload fairing and these patches will probably only add to the mystery of this 599th Long March rocket launch. And the 600th is coming in just over 2 days...

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

Tracking these will probably become more and more difficult with random local companies' satellites plans and various constellations and military requirements only going to grow the number of Chinese satellites much higher soon. But that's the fun I guess.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

There aren't many air routes straight south of JSLC, & if the drop zones don't cross any, the Chinese practice is to not issue anything. Since this is a LM-2D, there would only be 2 at most for the 1st stage & fairings within China anyway. Yeah no-one's gonna know it's launching.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

The last launch that I was taken by surprise when it launched out of China was a Ceres-1 in August 2023, and that one actually had a 5 days period NOTAM known before hand. This one though probably never had one intended downrange because it went to a new 500 km 80° polar orbit.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

And so, while I was deep in sleep, late in the afternoon at the Gobi Desert at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, this Long March 2D rocket lifted off at 10:00 UTC with another "thingy" for "new optical imaging technological demonstration" purposes, Shiyan 31.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

To be fair, the only notice was posted just 1 day before launch, and it's an air space closure notice of a weird kind that only circles the pad (usually seen at Xichang & Wenchang). That's it. Even if I have seen it beforehand, I would not be able to predict what's launching.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

Then today the unthinkable to me happened. For the 1st time in over 2 years, a Chinese launch to orbit happened without anyone including me (at least here outside of a few Chinese spaceflight fans with some access to insider info) noticing beforehand!

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

But the completely separate social media world at the PRC (I can't even sign up an account to view content w/o submitting personal info!), lack of a "core" news source, and of course the secretive nature of spaceflight in China make covering the sprawling field very difficult.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

I was lagging behind following what's happening there for the past months (& I have a backlog of news for like 1 and a half months already that I still need to sit down & read since September) that w/o others' help (one big help coming from @thekutku.bsky.social) I would be missing a lot.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

You can see from the last months that if there's a part of the spaceflight world that's so poorly understood that one seems to be missing important news at the blink of the eye, it's the advancement from the government & private companies of the People's Republic of China.

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d

What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight, Quarter 4 2025 Issue - What The......?????

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 2d

This certainly faired better than a certain OLP-A at Starbase...
www.bilibili.com/video/BV1hK4...

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 2d

Slow motion of liftoff as filmed on the launch ship, by SpaceLens: www.bilibili.com/video/BV1kH4...

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

Someone has put the official livestream on YouTube: youtu.be/BIdof29oN8A

Orienspace Gravity-1 Y2 livestream

YouTube video by Aeronautics

youtu.be

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

Orienspace's own mission overview video: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JIklHHVXKl...

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

Quadruple trail of SRB fuel gold:

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

Probably the largest rocket to launch from a pad without an apparent deflector and/or sound suppression water system since...Starship?

Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

More photos from SpaceLens: m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

More raw SRBs power goodness from m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...:

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

Gravity-1 bouncing off its launch ship at sea with 4 SRBs putting out 600 tonnes of thrust at liftoff.
Photos from m.weibo.cn/detail/52205... & m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...:

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

And I swear the rocket with its thermal blankets on before launch remains one of the most bizarre pre-launch preparations of any rocket that I have ever seen:

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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 3d

The Jilin-1 commercial Earth observation satellite on board this Gravity-1 that launched just over an hour ago at 02:20 UTC is Wideband-02B-07, from a series not launched for over a year.

Launch photos via weibo.com/5396094153/Q...: