Earth can become more habitable for life as long as Jupiter changes its orbit around the Sun, Space.com reported.
In a new paper, astronomers at the University of California-Riverside simulated different arrangements of the solar system and came across some interesting findings.
They explained that a planet’s proximity to its star affects how much radiation it absorbs and its internal climate. They added that planets with more circular orbits maintain a steady distance from their star. Meanwhile, eccentric orbits – or oval-shaped – bring the celestial bodies closer or further away from their stars at different points.
The team noted that if Jupiter had a more eccentric orbit, it would also influence the Earth’s orbit, making it more oval.
This would mean that the Earth would periodically get closer to the Sun than it already gets. Consequently, frozen areas of the planet would become warmer and reach temperatures of the hospitable range – somewhere between 32 and 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
But researchers also observed that the ability to hold life is also impacted by a planet’s tilt, which influences how much radiation it receives from a star.
In case Jupiter decides to get a little closer to the Sun, it would cause extreme tilting in our world and less sunlight – meaning that a large part of the planet would be frozen.
The authors said that the findings could help astronomers better detect habitable planets outside the solar system.
A Long March 2D rocket launched a Yunhai-1 military weather satellite September 21. (credit: Xinhua)
An analysis of Chinese remote sensing satellites
by Henk H.F. Smid Monday, September 26, 2022
As was to be expected, the answer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the political visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic congressional delegation to Taiwan in August was in the form of threatening military operations and drills executed against Taiwan. The maneuvers took place in the waters and skies near Taiwan and included the live-firing of ballistic missiles in the Taiwan Strait. Undoubtedly, the use of the formidable Chinese satellite remote sensing assets made clear to the American military involved that the ability to deploy warships or aircraft with impunity, and even to operate safely from bases in the region, was no longer the case as it was during the mid-1990s. At that time a crisis erupted over Taiwan’s president visiting the US, prompting an angry reaction from Beijing. Reacting, the US Navy sent warships through the Taiwan Strait and there was nothing the PRC could do about it. Now, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group just remained in the region to “monitor the situation.” The greatly improved Chinese satellite surveillance capabilities and inherent intelligence of the last two decades made the difference for the most part.
The following is a non-exhaustive overview of the development and current execution of China’s satel lite surveillance capabilities. From 2015 on, commercial satellite Earth observation plays an important role too. Since remote sensing (data) from satellites is dual-use, there is no clear distinction between civil and military satellite surveillance, but for the sake of clarity it will be maintained. Only satellites will be covered, ground application systems and infrastructure will not be considered here.
Satellite remote sensing is defined here as the use of satellite sensors to observe, measure and record electromagnetic radiation reflected or emitted by the Earth and its surroundings for subsequent analysis and extraction of information. In addition, all remote sensing (data) from satellites is considered dual-use.
Civil remote sensing satellites
Fengyun meteorological satellite (FY)
Fengyun is a meteorological satellite series managed by the China Meteorological Administration. Within the meteorological program, the odd-numbered satellites (FY 1, FY 3) refer to polar-orbiting low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, while the even-numbered satellites are geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) satellites (FY 2, FY 4). The FY 1 satellite series was China’s first generation of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites. Its main task was to obtain atmospheric, cloud, land, and ocean information at home and abroad, and to collect relevant data for weather forecasting, climate prediction, natural disasters and global environmental monitoring. FY 1 and FY 2 started and improved China’s weather forecast capabilities over time. Second generation satellites became operational in 2008 (LEO FY 3) and 2016 (GEO FY 4). All Fengyun satellite data products are available to users all over the world and can be downloaded for free. Fengyun satellites are included in the world’s global operational meteorological satellite series of the World Meteorological Organization.
Four types of Fengyun meteorological satellites. (credit: CMA/SCS)
Haiyang Ocean Satellite (HY)
Haiyang are a group of marine scientific remote sensing satellites developed by Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and operated by the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, a subordinate agency of the State Oceanic Administration. The spacecraft use the three-axis stabilized CAST968 platform. The HY 1 series [2002, 2007, 2018, 2020] is China’s first satellite for surveying ocean resources (ocean color and sea surface temperature) and monitoring the environment. The HY 2 series [2011, 2018, 2020, 2021], is a parallel series to HY 1. HY 2 monitors the dynamic ocean environment with microwave sensors. It detects sea surface wind field, sea surface height, and sea surface temperature. Sensors are an altimeter, a scatterometer, and a microwave imager. HY 3 satellites, still to be launched, will be used to monitor islands, coastal zones, and maritime targets to obtain ocean geodesy information with optical, infrared and microwave sensors.
Haiyang 2 research of dynamic ocean environment. (credit: CAST)
Huanjing Disaster and Environmental Monitoring Satellite (HJ)
China plans to launch a total of 11 Huanjing satellites for disaster and environmental monitoring. The satellites will have visible, infrared, and multi-spectral sensors, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Up until now, five satellites have been launched. The first two satellites, HJ 1A/B, were launched simultaneously in 2008 in a coplanar orbit with a phasing of 180 degrees and were optical imaging satellites. HJ 1C, that was launched in 2012, is the first civilian Chinese remote sensing satellite to use a SAR radar. This S-band SAR was manufactured in Russia by NPO Mashinostroyeniya. In 2020, HJ 2A/B were launched and probably are improved satellites that will replace HJ 1A/B.
Huanjing 1 Disaster and Environmental Monitoring Satellite. (credit: CAST)
Ziyuan/CBERS Earth Resources Satellite (ZY)
The Ziyuan I/CBERS program integrated a 1970s plan to develop Brazilian and Chinese economies through major projects by promoting the use of space. Ziyuan I/CBERS satellites were designed for global coverage and include optical cameras and a system for collecting data on the environment. They are jointly managed by the PRC and Brazil. From 1999 to 2019, four successful CBERS missions were flown; three more ZY missions were launched in which China did not cooperate with Brazil.
Ziyuan II was billed as a civilian Earth observation system, but was militarily codenamed Jianbing-3 and was China’s first [2000] military high-resolution digital remote sensing satellite. They are reportedly used for area surveillance.
Ziyuan III is China’s first high-resolution civilian stereoscopic Earth observation program and has the overall goal of creating large-scale, three-dimensional maps and “providing relevant parameters for environmental monitoring, resource management, disaster response, urban planning and national security”.
CBERS-4 or Ziyuan I-04 Earth resources satellite. (credit: INPE)
Ziyuan II Earth resources satellite. (credit: CAST)
China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS)
In 2006, CHEOS was established as one of sixteen major national science and technology projects. Proposed was to build a high-resolution Earth observation system based on satellites, stratospheric airships, and aircraft. The associated ground systems would be improved or developed. The combination of these measures had to provide an all-weather, all-time, and global Earth observation capability. CHEOS therefore, should have multi-observation capabilities to provide high spatial-, temporal- and spectral resolution properties. From 2013 on, Gaofen satellites were launched to create the satellite-based part of CHEOS.
For the CHEOS program, more than 25 Gaofen satellites have been launched since 2013. These satellites are based on CAST satellite busses. It is known from the first seven GF series that different sensors are often used on each satellite. For example, GF 1, 2, 4, and 6 have high-resolution cameras and GF 3 is equipped with a C-band SAR. GF 5 has six sensors, including a hyperspectral camera and a directional polarization camera. The extra laser altimeter system on GF 7 enables three-dimensional research. Resolution capabilities and other information about Gaofen satellites was published for the lower numbered Gaofen series of satellites. Information for Gaofen satellites with number 8 and higher has not been publicly released, suggesting that the satellites are (partly) for national defense purposes.
Multispectral sensors with high spatial resolution
Gaofen 7
2019
2 High resolution camera’s with a coupled laser altimeter
Gaofen 8
2015
High resolution optical imaging payload
Gaofen 9 series
2015, 2020 (4)
High resolution payload for urban planning
Gaofen 10
2016, 2019
Unknown
Gaofen 11 series
2018, 2020, 2021
Optical camera’s with high spatial resolution, military?
Gaofen 12 series
2019, 2021, 2022
High Resolution SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)
Gaofen 13
2020
HR camera’s in geostationary orbit
Gaofen 14
2020
Electro-optical stereo cartography
Gaofen DUOMO
2020
Optical payload with sub-meter resolution
Commercial remote sensing satellites
Beijing series of commercial optical remote sensing satellites
Beijing 1 [2005] and constellation satellites Beijing 2 [2015, 2018] were commercially built for China by Surrey Satellite (UK). Noteworthy, the imaging capacity of Beijing 2 was 100% leased by a Singapore based company. Beijing 3 [2021, 2022] satellites have been built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation to acquire optical remote sensing satellite data and information products for the global commercial market. Beijing 3 satellites will mainly be used to provide remote sensing services in the fields of land resources management, agricultural resources survey, environment monitoring and city applications.
Jilin-1 is China’s first, self-developed, commercial remote sensing satellite system and is operated by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Corporation (CGSTC). The Jilin-1 satellite constellation is the core project and will eventually be composed of 138 remote sensing satellites covering high resolution, large swath width, video, and multi-spectrum, and a high revisit commercial service. As of the beginning of September, CGSTC has successfully launched 73 Jilin-1 satellites into space. The completed Jilin-1 constellation will be able to visit any place in the world 15 to 17 times per day, with the ability to update a global map every year and a national map five times per year. It can provide “high-quality remote sensing information and product services for agricultural and forestry production, environmental monitoring, smart city, geographical mapping, land planning and other fields”.
The first generation of Jilin-1 satellites were put in orbit in 2015, the second generation in 2019. A batch of eight Jilin-1 satellites (one Wideband 01C and seven Gaofen 03D spacecraft) were put in orbit on May 5, 2022. The Wideband 01C satellite is a 230-kilogram spacecraft featuring a high resolution video capability. The payload provides a 0.5-meterresolution optical as well as a 2-meter resolution multi-spectral capability. The seven 40-kilogram Gaofen 03D high-resolution imaging satellites in this launch provide better than a 0.75-meter resolution optical as well as a 2-meter resolution multi-spectral capability. The last batch, August 10, 2022, consisted of 16 Jilin-1 imaging satellites: ten in the Jilin-1 Gaofen high resolution optical imaging series and the first six in the Jilin-1 Hongwai A (infrared imaging) series.
Comprehensive information on Jilin-1 satellites can be obtained from the CGSTC website.
Military remote sensing satellites
Yunhai meteorological satellite (YH)
Yunhai 1 is a meteorological satellite series [2016, 2019] in Sun-synchronous orbits (SSO), according to state media used for “detecting the atmospheric and marine environment and space environment, as well as disaster control and other scientific experiments.” The Yunhai series are assessed to have military purposes. Yunhai 1 satellites have been built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, possibly based on the CAST2000 platform. Data provided by the Yunhai 1 satellites complement the information provided by the civil Fengyun meteorological satellites. Yunhai 1-02 [2019] suffered a breakup event on March 18, 2021, probably after an accidental collision with space debris.
Yunhai 2 is a constellation of military meteorological satellites. The satellites reportedly use Global Navigation Satellite System radio occultation to collect atmospheric data for weather forecasting and for ionosphere, climate, and gravity research. A first cluster of six identical Yunhai 2 satellites was launched in December 2018 in an 800-kilometer circular orbit at 50 degrees inclination together with a Hongyan 1 prototype communications satellite.
Ludi Kancha Weixing (LKW)
Ludi Kancha Weixing is a high-resolution optical Earth observation satellite for military purposes. Chinese media have stated that the satellites are used for remote sensing exploration of land resources. However, the secrecy surrounding the satellites is extreme, even by Chinese standards, giving credence to the theory that they are part of the country’s military topographical (the name means Land Survey Satellite) reconnaissance efforts. Looking at its parameters, the LKW satellites appear to be connected to the Yaogan reconnaissance satellite fleet. Based on its appearance—a hexagonal satellite body with three radial fixed solar panels—the satellite is likely suitable for hosting a telescope of about 65 centimeters and thus, in a 500-kilometer orbit, achieving a possible ground resolution of up to 0.7 meters for panchromatic and better than 3 meters for multispectral and near-infrared images. In 2017 and 2018, two satellites were launched into space. The rapid deployment pace of these four satellites are previously only seen in military-operated satellite projects.
Ludi Kancha Weixing Land Survey Satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Tianhui Yi Hao Weixing
Tianhui is a collective name for a network of several topographical satellites, built by Dong Feng Hong and operated by the People’s Liberation Army. It includes Earth observation missions using optical, radar, gravity, and magnetism sensors to obtain geo-information about the Earth. The program provides for the launch of nine satellites of six different types to obtain quantitative research of the Earth’s land, sea, gravity and magnetic field. These satellites will form a space-based Earth observation network to conduct both basic Earth survey and detailed survey for key areas or in response to an emergency.
Tianhui 1 satellites are part of the Ziyuan program which includes several civilian and military remote sensing programs. Four satellites of this type have been launched (2010–2021) in 500-kilometer SSO. The satellites are equipped with two different camera systems. One of them in the visible range (5 meters resolution), and the other in the infrared band (10 meters resolution).
Tianhui 1 topographical satellite. (credit: CAST)
Tianhui 2 satellites will be used, according to state media, to conduct land surveys, mapping, and scientific experiments in space. The Tianhui 2 series is the first microwave measurement system for China to use interferometric synthetic diaphragm radar (InSAR) technology, working together in pairs. (The satellite system is probably similar to the German TanDEM-X satellite system.) The Tianhui 2 satellites are believed to operate in the X-band and have a resolution of 3 meters. The first group of two satellites was launched in 2019. The mission was not announced in advance by China and NOTAM’s for the launch were not sent. The pair of Tianhui 2 satellites have been launched in almost the same type of orbit, 500-kilometer SSO, as the four Tianhui 1 satellites.
There is no Tianhui 3 satellite as of now. The Tianhui 4 satellite (2021) will, reportedly, observe the Earth in both the visible and infrared spectrum using two cameras with a resolution of less than 5 meters. It has been built by the Dong Feng Hong Corporation/CAST and is operated by the People’s Liberation Army.
Possible Tianhui 2 topographical satellites. (credit: CCTV-4)
Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing (TJS)
Tongxin Jishu Shiyan (Weixing) are a series of Chinese satellites that have been deployed in geostationary orbit since 2015 and presented by Chinese authorities as telecommunications satellites. Specific features have not been published and the real purpose of each satellite is therefore questionable. The behaviors exhibited by these satellites indicate a mixture of applications though. All TJS satellites are in geostationary orbit (GEO). Some appear to be built for missile warning (built by the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering), while others seem to operate like signal intelligence satellites (built by CAST, a Beijing based satellite factory). According to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, TJS 6 and TJS 7 have experimental docking stations. In any case, by Western observers they are considered to be military satellites because of the limited information available and the lack of published outcomes. It cannot be said with any certainty what kind of (military) satellites the launched TJS 3 and TJS 7 (2018, 2021) are. There seems to be no TJS 8.
TJS 1, 4, and 9 (2015, 2019, 2021) are assessed to be electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellites. They are sometimes also referred to as Qianshao-3 or Chang Cheng. Reportedly, TJS 1 had successfully deployed China’s first large aperture reflector antenna (about 32 meters across) after it reached GEO.
TJS 2, 5, and 6 (2017, 2020, 2021) are assessed to be early warning of ballistic missiles satellites. They are sometimes also referred to as Huoyan. The name Huoyan means Fire Eyes that may suggest infrared sensors.
TJS 4 Probable ELINT satellite (Reflector not deployed). (credit: CCTV)
TJS 5 Probable Early Warning satellite. (credit: SAST)
Jianbing Military Remote Sensing Satellites
Chinese military reconnaissance satellites are usually categorized based on their military Jianbing (group) designation. The first Jianbing group were the first generation of Fanhui Shi Weixing photo reconnaissance satellites (1975). The first Yaogan satellite, as most military remote sensing satellites have been publicly called since 2006, was the first of the Jianbing 5 group. Since 2015, the Jianbing-Yaogan relationship is no longer very clear and Western analysts differ on this naming. Yaogan satellites primarily support the People’s Liberation Army and may support civil causes too. They utilize various means of remote sensing: synthetic aperture radar (SAR), electro-optical reconnaissance (EO), and electronic intelligence (ELINT) for ocean surveillance.
Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW)
The Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW) satellite program was conceived and developed in the late 1960s. From 1975 to 1996 there were some 17 launches and salvages of three generations FSW satellites (military designation Jianbing 1). Military reconnaissance was done using photographic film, from a prism-like panorama camera, which, after salvaging the photo capsule, was developed on Earth. Under the Jianbing 2 and 4 name, six more, improved, FSW satellites were launched (2003–2005). The Jianbing 3 name was reserved for the three Ziyuan 2 Earth observation satellites (2000–2004). The FSW program is assessed to be terminated.
Jianbing 5 was the first generation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) reconnaissance satellitea. The satellite (2,700 kilograms) was equipped with an L-band SAR system with two working modes with 5 meters and 20 meters resolution respectively. The satellite operated in a polar orbit of 630 kilometers at an inclination of 98 degrees. In total, three missions of this series have been launched (see table).
Jianbing 7 is believed to be a second-generation radar reconnaissance satellite. Operating from a polar orbit of 510 kilometers at an inclination of 97.4 degrees, the satellite is equipped with a SAR package that offers a spatial resolution of about 1.5 meters. Since 2009, a total of four missions have been launched.
Jianbing 5 L-band SAR reconnaissance satellite. (credit: astronautix.com)
Jianbing 7 SAR reconnaissance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing X is believed to be a new type of SAR reconnaissance satellite. Yaogan 29, 33, and 33R are associated with this name. Yaogan 29 (2015), operating from a polar orbit of 615 kilometers at 97.3 degrees, the satellite is equipped with a SAR package that may offer a spatial resolution of better than 1.5 meters. It is possibly an improved Jianbing 5. Some analysts refer to this satellite as Jianbing 12.
Yaogan 33 [2019] was believed to be the second Jianbing X launch, but it failed. Yaogan 33R (2020) was initially seen as a replacement for Yaogan 33, but used a different launch site and a higher orbit: 682 kilometers at 98.7 degrees. There is a lot of ambiguity and confusion between analysts. Reportedly, 33R is not related to 33, but the name would have been reused. Either way, the satellite payload is believed to be a radar satellite of a new series, but details are unclear for now.
Yaogan | Jianbing – Electro-optical
The Jianbing 6 group consists of electro-optical reconnaissance satellites. The satellite is three-axis stabilized, with track maneuvering ability. Operating from a 630-kilometer SSO, the satellite is able to capture images of the Earth with a spatial resolution of about 1.5 meters. The satellite has an X-band data link for sending image data to dedicated ground stations. A total of six missions have been launched so far. Jianbing 10 is a second-generation electro-optical reconnaissance satellite developed using the Phoenix Eye satellite bus. This versatile bus is designed for SSO and has also been used in the Ziyuan 2 and CBERS Earth observation satellites programs. The optical payload has a spatial resolution of 0.77 meters. A total of three missions have been launched.
Jianbing 6 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CAST)
Jianbing 10 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 9 is believed to be the third generation of electro-optical reconnaissance satellites. The satellite’s imaging package was developed by the Changchun Institute of Optics. The satellite operates at a much higher altitude than previous Chinese electro-optical satellites, at a 1,200-kilometer orbit with an inclination of 100.3 degrees. Since 2009, a total of five missions have been launched.
Jianbing 11 is a high-resolution electro-optical reconnaissance satellite, possibly the successor to the Jianbing 10 group of satellites (fourth generation). Operating from a 490-kilometer SSO, it is believed that the satellite is capable of delivering images with a resolution of less than one meter. Since 2012, two satellite missions have been launched.
Jianbing 9 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 11 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
According to the website China.org, the Yaogan 26 satellite will be used as a new remote sensing device for scientific experiments, land surveys, crop yield assessments, and disaster monitoring. However, analysts believe that this class of satellites is used for military purposes. Developed by CAST and based on the Phoenix Eye-2 platform, the satellite is likely capable of high-resolution observation and also carries an infrared sensor. Western analysts differ widely on the name combination this satellite should have.
Yaogan 26 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Yaogan | Jianbing – Ocean Surveillance
One of the main objectives of the Jianbing Ocean Surveillance program is to put an end to the near invulnerability of US aircraft carriers. An aircraft carrier and its associated naval air group are extremely well defended. They are also very mobile, which is problematic, because before you can threaten them, you must first find them. A ship sailing 20 knots can travel more than 800 kilometers a day, so geolocating a naval air group in the middle of the ocean is a difficult game of hide and seek. Jianbing 8 can only detect ships if they emit electromagnetic energy (radar, communication). Jianbing 8 is also likely able to detect early warning aircraft launched from an aircraft carrier, giving a general idea of the aircraft carrier’s location.
The Jianbing 8 constellation is formed by three satellites in three orbital planes, at 63 degrees. The satellites, possibly consisting of a primary satellite and two sub-satellites, are launched in a triplet similar to that of the US satellite constellation NOSS/Whitecloud, which is used to detect, identify, and locate radar and telecommunication emissions, particularly those from warships. This Jianbing constellation likely performs this function by locating them using a technique in which the time difference of arrival of emitted signals is measured and used to triangulate. Since 2010, nine of such triplets have been launched.
On November 6, 2021, China successfully launched a triplet of satellites, Yaogan 35 01-A, -B and -C. The satellites were placed in a circular orbit of almost 500 kilometers at 35 degrees inclination. Before the launch, China reported that the satellites would be used for “scientific experiments, land and resource logging, and other areas”, but that’s probably a generic explanation to hide the satellites’ true purpose. It is believed that they may in fact be a continuation of the Jianbing 8 triplets and have a role in intelligence gathering. After the first successful launch, three more were executed in 2022.
Yaogan 30 triplets are a relatively recent addition to China’s satellite detection system. The first triplet of this type was launched on September 29, 2017, under the designation Yaogan 30 01-A, -B and -C. Officially, the purpose of these satellites is to “conduct technical experiments on the electromagnetic environment,” which is a euphemism for ELINT. This is consistent with the fact that ELINT satellites are often launched in triplets, such as the Jianbing 8 triplets. The advantage of a triplet is that satellites flying in tight formation, a few tens of kilometers away from each other, can triangulate and accurately locate the source of an electromagnetic signal. This is more difficult to achieve with a single satellite.
But, Yaogan 30 satellites do not fly in formation. The Yaogan 30-01 trio separated after launch and were placed 120 degrees apart. They are therefore too far apart to be able to triangulate signals, because there is not even an unobstructed line of sight between them. On the other hand, this type of layout corresponds to what is expected if three satellites are positioned in such a way that their visit frequency is maximized. Moreover, the satellites have good coverage of the Pacific Ocean, India, China, North Korea, and even Japan thanks to their low orbital inclination, the latitude that is important for China’s defense. In addition, the height of the track is remarkably low for ELINT satellites: usually these are placed relatively high, about 1,000 kilometers altitude, to increase their field of view. Imaging satellites, on the other hand, are placed low to increase their resolution while maintaining an acceptable field of view. Therefore, it is questionable whether the Yaogan 30 constellation is dedicated to ELINT: the only clues in this direction are images and official statements, which may be disinformation. The satellites could very well be small optical satellites that offer a high frequency of repetition. Up till July 2021, ten triplets of Yaogan 30 satellites have been put in space.
Yaogan 30 triplet of satellites. (credit: CCTV)
The Yaogan 32-01-01 and 32-01-02 are a duo of military satellites with an unknown purpose. The visualization during the launch broadcast at CCTV hints at SIGINT satellites. They were launched on October 9, 2018; a second launch took place on November 3, 2021.
Yaogan 32 military duo satellites (2018). (credit: CCTV)
The Yaogan 34 satellite is possibly the first of a new series of government optical remote sensing satellites, likely also used as military reconnaissance satellites. The satellite was described as an optical remote sensing satellite, mainly used in territorial research, urban planning, confirmation of land rights, road network design, crop yield estimation, disaster prevention and mitigation, and other areas. Yaogan 34, was launched in April 2021, Yaogan 34-02 followed in March 2022, in a 1100km/63.4° orbit.
The Gaofen 11 series was billed as a civilian Earth observation system but was militarily codenamed Jianbing 16.
Jianbing satellites [SCS, September 1, 2022]
Jianbing #
Satellite Name
Year of Launch
Function/Sensors
Jianbing 1
Fanhui Shi Weixing 0-1 – 0-9
1975 – 1987
Film/Photo reconnaissance
Jianbing 1A
Fanhui Shi Weixing 1-1 – 1-5
1987 – 1993
Film/Photo reconnaissance
Jianbing 1B
Fanhui Shi Weixing 2-1 – 2-3
1992 – 1996
Film/Photo reconnaissance
Jianbing 2
Fanhui Shi Weixing 3-1 – 3-3
2003 – 2005
Film/Photo reconnaissance
Jianbing 3
Ziyuan 2-1 – 2-3
2000 – 2004
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 4
Fanhui Shi Weixing 3-1 – 3-3
2004 – 2005
Film/Photo reconnaissance
Jianbing 5
Yaogan 1, 3, 10
2006 – 2010
SAR
Jianbing 6
Yaogan 2, 4, 7, 11, 24, 30
2007 – 2016
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 7
Yaogan 6, 13, 18, 23
2009 – 2014
SAR
Jianbing 8
Yaogan 9, 16, 17, 20, 25, 31
2010 – 2021
Elint (Ocean Surveillance)
Jianbing 9
Yaogan 8, 15, 19, 22, 27
2009 – 2015
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 10
Yaogan 5, 12, 21
2008 – 2014
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 11
Yaogan 14, 28
2012, 2015
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 12
Yaogan 26
2014
Electro-Optical
Jianbing 16
Gaofen 11-01, 02, 03
2018, 2020, 2021
Electro-Optical
Jianbing X
Yaogan 29, 33, 33R
2015, 2019, 2020
Probably SAR
Jianbing ?
Yaogan 35
2021, 2022 (3)
Probably Elint (Ocean Surveillance)
Jianbing ?
Yaogan 30 (Chuangxin 5)
2017 – 2021
Possibly Elint (Ocean Surveillance)
Jianbing ?
Yaogan 32
2018, 2021
Unknown
Jianbing ?
Yaogan 34
2021, 2022
Possibly Electro-Optical
Conclusion
Reportedly, boosted by policy support, China’s aerospace market has grown rapidly in the past seven years, with an annual growth rate of more than 20% and China is now the world’s second largest commercial satellite owner after the US. According to the UCS Satellite Database, from 2015 to 2018, China launched fewer than ten commercial remote sensing satellites annually, but the introduction of support policies helped commercial players. In 2019–2021, the annual commercial remote sensing satellites that were launched were 21, 13, and 36 respectively while the amount for 2022 is expected to be more than 50.
Henk Smid is retired chief officer of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, space analyst and publicist of numerous space related articles. He has been an advisor to several national and international working groups on space-related topics for which he has prepared/written a series of analyses and projections [Defence, NATO, European Commission].
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In contrast to astronauts, many of whom have written memoirs, few space agency leaders write books about their time in office or other topics, like former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver in Escaping Gravity. An exception to this is Roberto Battiston, a physicist who spent four years as the president of the Italian space agency ASI and has written numerous essays and books on space and science topics. The latest, First Dawn, is now available in English.
The book is not a memoir, although he discusses some experiences he had during his time leading ASI in later chapters of the book. Instead, in nearly three dozen relatively short chapters, he takes the reader on a meandering path from cosmology to astrobiology to spaceflight and space policy.
“The questions we ask ourselves are very similar to those asked by the philosophers of ancient Greece,” he writes, such as the nature of matter. “However, the context has changed, thanks to the development of experimental science.”
Much of the book is fairly straightforward, as Battiston discusses the Big Bang and the evolution of the early universe, then moves to the formation of the Sun, our solar system, and the development of life on Earth and prospects of it elsewhere. Halfway into the book, he suddenly shifts back out to cosmology, discussing dark matter and dark energy, black holes, and related topics. That allows him to go into his participation on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer project, a particle physics experiment on the International Space Station for more than a decade.
Battiston treads familiar ground for most of those chapters, with few new revelations about the cosmos, although an occasional insight. “The questions we ask ourselves are very similar to those asked by the philosophers of ancient Greece,” he writes, such as the nature of matter. “However, the context has changed, thanks to the development of experimental science. Four centuries after Galileo, today we know how to question nature and how to read the mathematical characters with which its book is written.”
What may be most interesting to readers are some of his views on space exploration and commercialization in the book’s final chapters, leveraging his time leading ASI. He recalls visiting SpaceX’s headquarters for meetings with Elon Musk and other executives, coming away highly impressed with the company and the facility (even if he says that plant is located “in the southern part of San Francisco”; Hawthorne, California, is in the Los Angeles area.) He notes he attended closed-door meetings there along with NASA and other space agencies and various companies—including Caterpillar, the construction machinery company—to discuss exploring and settling Mars. “In Europe,” he laments, “I have found myself participating in this type of discussion only in the context of universities and the research world.”
Europe, he writes, missed the boat on reusability: there was little discussion of it, he recalls, at an ESA ministerial meeting in 2014 that led to development of the Ariane 6 as Europe’s response to the Falcon 9; a year after that meeting, SpaceX landed its first booster. There was also a missed opportunity with smallsats, he argues, comparing the rise of Earth imaging company Planet, born from projects at NASA Ames, with the struggle to secure Italian government support for a smallsat project at the Terni location of the University of Perugia. “By mentioning this I certainly don’t mean to imply that an impressive and ambitious project like Planet Labs could have started in Terni, but in all honesty, I cannot rule it out,” he writes.
Those insights near the end of First Dawn help keep it from being just a run-of-the-mill space science book. One wonders what other glimpses behind the scenes of spaceflight we might get if more former space agency leaders started writing books.
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.
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Leaders of five space agencies—NASA, ESA, CSA, JAXA and ISRO—participate in a panel at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris September 18. Officials from China and Russia, previously announced to also be on the panel, were absent. (credit: IAF)
Space for (mostly) all
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 26, 2022
The theme of last week’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) was “Space for All”, or, as written, “Space for @ll”, the at-sign an apparent nod to a digital component that was largely absent at a conference that required one to be there in person to see all of the major sessions. But plenty of people did show up in person: when the IAC closed on Thursday, the International Astronautical Federation said more than 9,300 people registered—a record—from 110 countries.
As is often the case, though, what gets noticed is not who shows up but who does not. In the case of this year’s IAC in Paris, it was two major spacefaring nations that had little or no official presence at the largest conference of its kind: China and Russia.
“Despite the political troubles on terra firma,” Nelson said, “you still see that professional relationship working in the civilian space arena.”
Russia’s absence is understandable given its invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions by the West. Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos, had already been sanctioned for his role as deputy prime minister in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and did not attend either the 2018 IAC in Germany or the 2019 IAC in the United States. He did, though, attend last year’s IAC in Dubai, and Roscosmos had a major presence in the exhibit hall, something that was lacking in Paris last week.
Civil space, particularly the ISS, is one of the few places where Russia still cooperates with the West, even if that cooperation is difficult at times. “This didn’t start just yesterday,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said of cooperation with Russia in space during a heads-of-agencies panel at IAC September 18 that included him and the heads of other Western ISS partners—the Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency—but neither Russia nor China. (India’s space agency ISRO was the only other agency on the panel.)
Nelson repeated comments he’s delivered many times over the last seven months about how ties between the US and Russia in space date back to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project nearly 50 years ago. “Despite the political troubles on terra firma,” Nelson said, “you still see that professional relationship working in the civilian space arena.”
At a press conference immediately after the panel, Nelson revealed that he has talked with Yuri Borisov, who replaced Rogozin as head of Roscosmos in mid-July. “I told him that I look forward to seeing him at the first opportunity,” he said. It’s unclear when that opportunity might arise.
Nonetheless, that cooperation on the ISS continues. Last Wednesday, a Soyuz rocket launched the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to the station with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and two Russian cosmonauts on board. Rubio was the first to fly under a seat exchange agreement completed last July between NASA and Roscosmos. In early October, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina will fly to the ISS on the Crew-5 Crew Dragon mission with NASA and JAXA astronauts.
“This crew swap represents the ongoing effort of tremendous teams on both sides,” Rubio said in a call with reporters last month. “I think it’s important, when we’re at moments of tension elsewhere, that human spaceflight and exploration, something that both agencies are incredibly passionate about, remains a form of diplomacy and partnership where we can find common ground.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected not just civil space cooperation but commercial endeavors as well. International Launch Services (ILS) started more than 25 years ago as a joint venture of Lockheed Martin, Energia, and Khrunichev to jointly market the Atlas and Proton rockets commercially. The company is now owned by Khrunichev but has its headquarters in Northern Virginia, offering the Proton and Angara to commercial customers.
“Truth be told, both the US government and the Russian government could choose to end ILS if they wanted to,” said Louradour.
That was difficult even before the invasion: the Proton, once a major player in the commercial launch market alongside the Ariane 5 and Sea Launch’s Zenit-3SL in an era where geostationary communications satellites provided most of the demand, has faded both because of problems with the rocket and a market that had shifted. The Angara, set to replace it, has been slow to enter service.
Now, sanctions and export control restrictions make if effectively impossible for any Western customer to launch their satellites on Russian vehicles, even if they wanted to. OneWeb lost access to Soyuz rockets, arranged through a contract with Arianespace, in early March, and had to scramble to find new rides with ISRO and SpaceX.
ILS, though, remains in operation. “Truth be told, both the US government and the Russian government could choose to end ILS if they wanted to,” said Tiphaine Louradour, president of ILS, during a panel at World Satellite Business Week in Paris September 13. “We believe that they recognize the venture still has value in the ties and the relationships between the countries, and that it has merit and purpose to continue.”
She acknowledged, though, that there was little ILS could do now but to wait until relations improve with Russia. “I certainly do hope that, for much broader reasons than ILS, that this current situation will resolve,” she said. “Our job is remain ready and to engage with the community and our customers.”
Asked if ILS could broker launches for non-Western countries that are willing to continue working with Russia, Louradour suggested that would still be difficult. “Being a US company, we have to, and we do, remain fully compliant with all US laws and regulations regarding import and export. We are also compliant with the State Department licensing requirements,” she said. “Opportunities may be there, but we have to evaluate that through that filter.”
She said after the panel that the company was not just sitting around and waiting for a changed geopolitical climate, but instead making sure it was internally prepared to resume sales should that climate change for the better. “We’ll be ready to hit the ground running.”
While Russia’s absence at IAC was not unexpected—reportedly, Russian officials could not get visas to participate—China’s low profile was a different story. The country was not completely absent at the IAC: some officials attended to accept an award from the International Astronautical Federation for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission and give a talk about it. But China, after originally being slated to participate in the heads-of-agencies panel, bowed out at the last minute and did not otherwise have a high profile at the conference.
“Cooperation with China, that’s up to China,” Nelson said at the press conference. “There has to be an openness there, and that has not been forthcoming.” He did not mention the Wolf Amendment, the provision in appropriations bills dating back more than a decade that sharply restricts NASA’s ability to cooperate bilaterally with China in space without Congressional approval.
Nelson said there have been “little glimpses” of such cooperation, such as deconfliction of the countries’ Mars orbiter missions. “I would hope that, on occasions like that, we would continue to have this,” he said. “But, as most of the people observing, I think, would see, there’s not a lot of transparency with regard to the Chinese space program vis-à-vis the US.”
“Cooperation with China, that’s up to China,” Nelson said.
Some at the IAC wondered if the global space community might splitting into two or more blocs. One would led by Western countries and allies, such as signatories of the Artemis Accords. During the conference representatives of the 21 countries that have signed the Accords met in person for the first time, primarily to identify topics of discussion and future work to build upon the principles outlined in the Accords. Another would be led by China and perhaps Russia, who previously committed to work together on an International Lunar Research Station.
A few are trying to straddle that divide. Shortly before the IAC, the United Arab Emirates, which signed the Artemis Accords, announced an agreement to fly a small rover on a future Chinese lunar lander mission. That would be the second such rover built by the UAE; the first, Rashid, is slated to fly late this year on a commercial lunar lander built by Japanese company ispace that will launch on a Falcon 9.
ESA also has some ties with China, said Josef Aschbacher, ESA director general, at the press conference. That included work on climate research. “No one can afford to be not participating,” he said of working on climate change. “At the end of the day, there’s one planet, and you cannot divide it.”
However, the lack of Chinese and Russian participation at this year’s IAC appeared to be a sensitive point for the conference organizers. The heads-of-agencies plenary, like others at the conference, used an online service called Slido to solicit questions from the audience and allow them to vote for questions submitted by others. The question getting the most votes asked why, given the “Space for All” conference theme, neither China nor Russia was on the panel, particularly since both countries were slated to participate according to earlier versions of the program. Despite the audience interest, the panel moderators never brought up the question.
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.
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Frank Donald Drake, an astronomer who pioneered the field of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) died on September 2 at the age of 92.
Born in Chicago, Drake showed an early interest in chemistry and electronics. He entered Cornell University as an undergraduate and a participant in the Navy’s Reserve Office Training Corps. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the U.S.S. Albany and put in charge of the ship’s electronics. He followed this interest upon entering Harvard University as a graduate student in radio astronomy.
After earning his PhD, Drake took a position with the newly constituted National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. In 1958, the fledgling Observatory purchased a radio telescope “kit” from the Blaw-Knox Corporation in order to quickly have a research-grade instrument until a planned, larger antenna could be built. A year later, the assembled telescope, with its 85 foot reflector, was outfitted for observations and dedicated to Howard Tatel, an engineer who designed its novel mount. This prompted the NRAO director, to suggest to Drake that he come up with a research program to use the telescope.
Drake decided to follow another of his long-standing interests, and do a search, at microwave frequencies, for extraterrestrial transmissions. The idea that intelligent beings elsewhere might be using radio as a communication mode was already old – both Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla had attempted to pick up signals from Mars that they could attribute to beings on the Red Planet. With the greater astronomical sophistication that had developed by the 1950s, Drake opted to point the Tatel telescope in the direction of two nearby stars, Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, each at about a dozen light-years’ distance. For several weeks Drake alternately pointed the telescope at these stars. The receiver was a commercial receiver designed for shortwave listening, and he used a simple motor drive to sweep its tuning up and down the dial. He chose to look at frequencies adjacent to the radio emission line (1420 MHz) of neutral hydrogen, on the grounds that this naturally produced line would be known to any technically proficient civilization, and therefore would serve as a marker for the guidance of societies who might wish to make contact. Drake was unaware of a paper published in 1959 by two Cornell University physicists who were arguing for just such experiments, pointing out that anyone with technology that was at least as advanced as our own could send detectable radio signals.
Drake named this first, modern SETI experiment Project Ozma, a reference to the princess in Frank Baum’s books, as she was in a world “both wonderful and far away.”
Although Project Ozma didn’t detect any extraterrestrial transmissions, it nonetheless attracted world-wide attention. As a consequence, the National Academy of Sciences suggested that Drake organize a small conference to discuss the nature and potential of trying to find evidence of intelligence in the cosmos. In response, a group of about a dozen prominent scientists and engineers met during the summer of 1961 in Green Bank. As an agenda for this gathering, Drake wrote a simple equation, consisting of seven concatenated terms whose product would be the estimated number of galactic societies who were producing signals that we, at least in principle, could discover. This formulation has become known as the Drake Equation, and is cited as the second most-famous equation in science (after Einstein’s E=mc2).
Drake eventually worked at both Cornell, at the Arecibo radio telescope, and at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He became president of the SETI Institute after its founding in 1984. He continued to promote SETI even after his official retirement in 2010 at the age of eighty. As he said at the time, “I’m never going to retire from SETI.”
Frank Drake was a man of extensive influence, inspiring many of today’s SETI practitioners who, as students, were informed by his efforts. A book published in 1992 and co-authored with Dava Sobel, “Is Anyone Out There?”, describes his career in detail. He was a soft-spoken person of perpetual good humor and astounding patience. When asked whether his tranquil demeanor was due to dealing with his children, he smiled and responded “No. It was students.”
It is a rare scientific discipline for which the pioneer can live to see an idea and experiment become a continuing research endeavor, one that fascinates not just researchers, but the public at large. But that was the flowering of SETI, an effort that promises to someday deliver profoundly important news; namely, that Earth is not the only world to have spawned life able to seek out and find other worlds that have done the same.
Drake leaves behind his wife, Amahl, and two daughters, as well as three children from a previous marriage.
Lunar samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 probe are unveiling some new details about the Moon and how its resources can help Earth, the South China Morning Post reported.
In 2020, the Chang’e-5 lunar probe – named after China’s Moon goddess Chang’e – returned to Earth carrying nearly four pounds of lunar dust and rocks, the first samples to be retrieved in more than 40 years.
Since then, Chinese researchers have been carefully studying the samples and came across a new mineral. They reported that the particle – named Changesite-(Y) – was a phosphate found in lunar basalts and had a diameter of about one-tenth of a human hair.
Changesite-(Y) – also named after the goddess – is the sixth new mineral discovered on the Moon and its discovery makes China the third country to have discovered a novel lunar particle, after the US and Russia.
Scientists and officials explained that Changesite-(Y) could provide insights into the history and evolution of the Moon, as well as new details for deep space exploration.
But Changesite-(Y) is just one of the unique discoveries that astronomers made.
The collected samples were also found to contain Helium-3, a stable isotope of helium that many scientists say could be integral to developing new energy sources on Earth, Newsweek noted.
Helium-3 can be used to fuel future nuclear fusion reactors, an ambitious – but still nascent – technology that would provide greener energy for the planet.
Unlike existing nuclear fission plants, fusion reactors don’t produce dangerous and radioactive waste products.
Scientists have speculated that Helium-3 is abundant on the Moon and could be integral to Earth’s energy needs, although it would take many years until nuclear engineers could develop a reliable energy-producing fusion reactor.
Astronaut Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission, participates in water egress training in a water tank in Building 260 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (credit: NASA)
Return to panic: How two iconic NASA astronauts survived the 1970s and beyond
by Emily Carney Monday, September 19, 2022
“Songs are as sad as the listener,” author Jonathan Safran Foer wrote in the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Indeed, perspective—and time—are things that color one’s thoughts, particularly when times get tough. Two NASA astronauts who perhaps had the most challenging times of all during the 1970s were Buzz Aldrin, Gemini 12 veteran and Apollo 11 moonwalker, and Fred Haise, who just missed the Moon during 1970’s Apollo 13. Within two years of triumphantly becoming one of the first humans ever to walk upon the lunar surface, Aldrin graduated from being feted by world leaders to being hospitalized for worsening clinical depression and alcoholism. Within three years of surviving Apollo 13’s oxygen tank explosion and tumultuous return, Haise was entangled in yet another fight for his life—this one somehow magnitudes worse than weathering numerous technical failures in deep space.
Analyzing Aldrin’s 1973 memoir Return to Earth, interviews conducted by Aldrin during and after his hospital experience, Haise’s recently-published autobiography Never Panic Early, and Haise’s just-released diaries reveal how two men with very similar jobs—both were supremely gifted lunar module pilots during their respective Apollo flights—dealt with their hardships in disparate ways.
Astronauts Fred W. Haise, Jr., Commander, left, and C. Gordon Fullerton in the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Orbiter 101 “Enterprise” prior to the fifth and final FF in the Approach and Landing Test (ALT) series, from DFRC. (credit: NASA)
The door to Hell
Here it is, Dec. 23 [1973] and I finally am in the proper frame of mind to catch you up diary. To take [you] through some very dark days. – Haise’s first diary entry after his near-fatal August 1973 plane crash
It bears mentioning that Return to Earth (written with author Wayne Warga) and Never Panic Early (written with space historian Bill Moore) were written at different phases of Aldrin’s and Haise’s lives. Aldrin’s memoir was published when he was 43, while Haise was 88 and had more decades to process the events that defined his life for better and worse. Haise’s book—mercifully—spends little time on Apollo 13, which has already been written about and documented by multitudes of writers. More fascinatingly, Haise satiates space history enthusiasts with his stories about Apollo and early Space Shuttle development, flying the Enterprise Approach and Landing Tests of 1977, and his role in moving other space projects forward as a Grumman executive. But the dramatic fulcrum of Never Panic Early occurred on August 23, 1973, when 39-year-old Haise, in his words, “encountered one of those sharp turns in the road after I joined a group then known as the Confederate Air Force and now as the Commemorative Air Force.” Like many of his fellow astronaut colleagues, Haise enjoyed flying in his free time outside of NASA duties.
Two men with very similar jobs dealt with their hardships in disparate ways.
Haise was piloting a Vultee BT-13 Valiant dive bomber to Galveston, Texas, to have it cleaned for an upcoming air show in Dallas. He wrote, “At about 300-feet altitude, headed south toward the Gulf of Mexico, the engine started sputtering and cutting out.” Haise, who had experienced engine failures before as a test pilot, searched for a suitable landing site as the engine kept cutting in and out. Haise touched down upon uneven terrain, then one landing gear failed, crashing a wingtip into the ground. The plane cartwheeled and burst into flames; Haise was trapped upside down with flames licking his body’s lower half. He managed to flip himself and kick through the cockpit’s canopy. Walking in a daze to a family’s porch to wait for an ambulance, his vision started to white out. Haise assumed the heat from the flames had burned his eyes. He later realized the “whiting out” was a symptom of shock from the horrific burns he had just sustained. (In his diaries, he recollected that when his vision returned, he exclaimed, “Oh, happy day!”)
He later referred to his following memories as “entering the door to Hell.” The first procedure he underwent at the University of Texas Galveston Hospital was being lowered into a water tank to remove his World War II-era cloth flight suit, which was stuck to his burned body. Having suffered second and third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body (mainly his legs), he hung between the specter of life and death for the next ten days. Family and friends, including fellow astronaut colleagues Ken Mattingly, Charlie Duke, and Paul Weitz, kept a 24-hour vigil, taking shifts while his life hung in the balance. “After ten days, they took me off the critical list and told me that I could look forward to living for a while longer,” Haise wrote.
Here’s where Haise began to take control of his post-crash narrative—and recovery. He informed his medical team that his goal was to return to flight status. His ordeal, however, was far from over. Haise was forced to undergo a medieval-sounding treatment called “debridement,” which removed damaged skin from the third-degree areas. In Never Panic Early, he remembered, “During this several hour process, my nurse often had the TV program Soul Train playing. For the next several years, whenever I heard the Soul Train theme music, I immediately remembered those unpleasant days.” Haise spent 11 weeks in the hospital and underwent skin grafting to restore the skin on his legs. The week after he was released, still wearing compression garments to help heal his wounds, he went right back to work at NASA. Haise ends this frankly surreal and terrifying chapter in Never Panic Early with his trademark optimism:
I consider myself to be an extremely fortunate man to have had a passion that tapped into my interests and abilities, and allowed me to draw from all of my life experiences. Changes were definitely in store for America’s space exploration program. During this time, the last Apollo had flown, Skylab needed a shuttle to boost it to a higher orbit, and Columbia’s first shuttle mission to space was more than five years away.
Haise’s new website, created with Logan Jaeren, has made available his diaries from this period and further takes control of his life’s narrative. These diaries are consistent with the theme of survival depicted in Never Panic Early. Haise began visiting children at a local Shriners hospital who had sustained injuries like his to show them that recovery was possible. His diaries from this time are often heartbreaking. An entry from June 23, 1974, read, “About 1/3 [of patients] seemed to be less than two years old this time. Several others were too sedated to talk to sensibly. One little fellow about five covered with the netting type gauze called me Daddy…kept asking when his parents could come.” (Ostensibly, the child’s parents couldn’t visit due to infection and communicable disease risks.)
The book and diaries betray the gritty determination of someone who not only survived but thrived,
Many of his 1974 diary entries expressed his determination to regain his flight status. An entry from November 14, 1974, read, “[I] am sorry I cannot report being successfully through flight physical & return to flight status. [I] will accomplish before end of year which was my original decreed milestone. [I] will make it with better odds than Shuttle’s key milestones.” He was correct in that he would make it before the shuttle did. By 1977, not only had Haise returned to flight status, but he was flying the ultimate experimental plane: Space Shuttle Enterprise. But that’s a story for another time. Never Panic Early and Haise’s diaries—nearly 50 years apart—are written from the same perspective; they betray the gritty determination of someone who not only survived but thrived.
The face of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, is seen in this color reproduction, taken from the third television transmission, from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its trans-lunar journey toward the moon. (credit: NASA)
I myself am Hell
Life changed dramatically and irreversibly. It would be nearly three years later when, as a patient at the Lackland Air Force Base Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, I found myself standing one night looking at a ripe full moon presiding over a clear cool sky, that the experience could come full circle to a new beginning. What I said to myself was simple enough: “You’ve been to the moon. You did it. First. It cannot be done again, not by you, not by anyone else. Now get the hell out of here and live the kind of life you want.” But getting to that moment proved to be one long and torturous journey. – Buzz Aldrin, Return to Earth
Thanks to Apollo 13’s oxygen tank explosion, Fred Haise barely missed the Moon. Buzz Aldrin’s 1973 memoir Return to Earth is the story of someone who made it to the lunar surface—but barely survived during the ensuing years, thanks to a volatile cocktail of alcohol, depression, marital strife, social anxiety, generational trauma, and the repercussions of having a toxic parent. Its tone is as far from Never Panic Early as can be; it could be alternately titled Always Panic. Aldrin’s recollections of the severe anxiety he experienced during the post-Apollo 11 world tour—particularly during public speaking—induce the same feelings in the reader. Chaotic, shocking as it is revelatory, and sometimes very sad (and maddening), it’s the astronaut version of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died. One feels bad for Aldrin but, at the same time, is sometimes incensed by his decision-making (particularly when he decides, immediately after his hospitalization, that it’s a good idea to dump his longtime wife, Joan).
At the time of its publication, Aldrin’s book was downright radical in its admissions of mental illness and bad behavior. The military, which had been part of Aldrin’s life practically since birth, as his father was a Colonel in the Army Air Corps during both World Wars, has never been sympathetic concerning issues such as depression and anxiety. Mental illness among NASA astronauts, especially during the machismo-dominated 1960s and early 1970s, couldn’t and wouldn’t have been accepted. While Return to Earth is often an uncomfortable read, it’s a remarkable document: the first autobiography of its kind admitting that an American hero possessed very human flaws. It’s also notable in that it captured Buzz Aldrin before he became “Buzz Aldrin”—the celebrity of more recent times who shamelessly hawked space and “Get Your Ass To Mars” T-shirts on Dancing with the Stars and WWE Raw.
Aldrin, in Return to Earth, just stopped short of saying what needed to be said: that his father let him down terribly and set a bad precedent. But in 1973, this message was not something people were ready to read, especially from an American hero.
Return to Earth’s narrative begins immediately after Apollo 11 splashed down, its crew entering quarantine; like Haise, Aldrin was also 39 when his struggles took hold. Aldrin, mission commander Neil Armstrong, and command module pilot Michael Collins were almost immediately whisked off on an arduous-at-best travel schedule across the United States, then the world. This would be difficult for nearly anyone, much less someone with a genetic predisposition to mental illness; Aldrin’s mother, Marion Moon, died by suicide shortly after his Gemini 12 flight. Unsurprisingly, Aldrin’s anxieties intensified, undoubtedly aided by the copious amounts of Scotch he imbibed. He couldn’t go to the department store to buy a suit or even go to the bathroom without someone following him and asking for an autograph. Within a year, he increasingly couldn’t get out of bed; an appointment to lead the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, which should have been viewed as a plumb assignment, brought no joy, either.
Aldrin’s problems were complicated by a toxic relationship with his father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr. However, it’s doubtful that the younger Aldrin viewed his father in that light when Return to Earth was written. Aldrin Sr. was markedly not pleased that his son was third, not first, in his West Point class; predictably, he was also vexed that his son was second, not first, to set foot on the Moon. Buzz wrote, “[My father] was being questioned [on television] about my years at West Point and he said, ‘Buzz was first in his class in both athletics and scholarship his first year at West Point.’ …But he seldom mentions the fact that when I graduated three years later, I was third in a class of 435. Third place doesn’t hold quite the appeal to him that first place does.”
In Return to Earth, there is a profoundly awkward passage where a commemorative stamp bearing the words “First Man on the Moon” is unveiled depicting only Armstrong, which upset both Aldrins. It’s fair to assume that the elder Aldrin’s hyper-competitiveness influenced his astronaut son’s personality development. It’s also evident that the younger Aldrin’s enmeshed relationship with his father impacted his ability to take control of his own life’s narrative. In stark contrast, Aldrin’s Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins almost gleefully admitted in his autobiography Carrying the Fire that he was firmly in the middle of his West Point class and was not an academic whiz but doesn’t seem at all bothered by it (and Collins also had a military father.)
While not as apparent as a burn wound, this generational trauma still profoundly impacted Buzz Aldrin’s life before and after Apollo 11. Before Apollo 11, it spurred him to become the man who got everything he wanted: the jobs, the degrees, the woman, the family, the status, and ultimately, the star-making spaceflight. After Apollo 11, he only felt a lack as one of the people he continually sought the approval of continued to deny it. This is merely one hallmark of the narcissistic parent.
In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy wrote, “Brave, kind, loyal, sweet, loving, graceful, strong, thoughtful, funny, genuine, hopeful, playful, insightful, and on and on…Was she, though? Was she any of those things? The words make me angry. I can’t look at them any longer.” McCurdy discussed how parents—no matter how awful, inappropriate, or abusive they can be—are romanticized; after all, being a parent is viewed as one of the highest forms of self-sacrifice. This is why Aldrin, in Return to Earth, just stopped short of saying what needed to be said: that his father let him down terribly and set a bad precedent. But in 1973, this message was not something people were ready to read, especially from an American hero.
Aldrin Sr. died in 1974. Buzz Aldrin did survive the 1970s and, like Haise, rose above his circumstances to help others with similar problems. A BBC Archives interview from 1980, over a decade after his Apollo mission, showed a healthier, clear-minded Aldrin discussing how he got his life back in order: “I learned that it was okay to not be perfect all the time.”
This interior view of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, during the lunar landing mission. (credit: NASA)
Some people face adversity but take firm control of their life’s narrative and move ceaselessly forward despite any indignities they sustain. Some struggle, fall upon old crutches, pick at the wounds they suffered during the fight, but slowly recover over time. This is why Fred Haise’s Never Panic Early and Buzz Aldrin’s Return to Earth—both memoirs written by two icons of space from the same era—are so different in tone and execution.
Sources
Aldrin, E. E., & Warga, W. (1973). Return to Earth. Random House.
Haise, F., & Moore, B. (2022). Never Panic Early: An Apollo 13 Astronaut’s Journey. Smithsonian Books.
McCurdy, J. (2022). I’m Glad My Mom Died. Simon & Schuster.
The line “I myself am hell” is from Robert Lowell’s poem “Skunk Hour,” published in the book Life Studies in 1959.
Emily Carney is a writer, space enthusiast, and creator of the This Space Available space blog, published since 2010. She would like to thank Francis French for his input.
A model of an Ariane 6 greets visitors to the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week. Keeping that vehicle on track is one of the priorities of the upcoming ESA ministerial council meeting that will fund agency programs for the next three years. (credit: J. Foust)
Europe seeks to stay in the space race
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 19, 2022
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) started in Paris not on a Monday, as is traditionally the case, but instead on Sunday. The shift was reportedly a scheduling issue: the pandemic that delayed the 2020 IAC in Dubai to 2021 also delayed the 2021 IAC in Paris to 2022, and the only dates available at the convention center that straddles the Boulevard Périphérique, several kilometers from the heart of Paris, required the event to start over the weekend.
“You realize, especially in Europe, how dependent we are in space on Russia,” said Aschbacher. “We had to decouple our cooperation and our links with Russia very, very quickly. This is something that is not easy.”
That scheduling has not deterred turnout: more than 8,700 people have registered for the five-day conference, a record. (Being in Paris helps, no doubt; the event may not be so popular next year in Baku, Azerbaijan.) A large fraction of them made it to the opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning for the usual pomp and circumstance and entertainment, including a performance by the French Olympic breakdancing team.
There was also, though, politics. The event featured several French and European Union officials who used the ceremonies not just to welcome attendees to Paris and offer generic platitudes about space but also to make political points. Valérie Pécresse, president of the regional council of Île-de-France, the region that includes Paris, called for greater European support for the Ariane 6.
She was also critical of what she saw as unchecked commercial activities in space. “Space should not be dominated by market forces,” said Pécresse, an unsuccessful conservative candidate for the French presidency earlier this year. “Space should not be a hunting ground for billionaires.”
Later, Élisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, spoke at the opening ceremony, using the event to announce a major increase in government spending for space. She announced the government would allocate more than nine billion euros to space programs for the next three years, funding that would go to the French space agency CNES as well as France’s contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA). That funding represented a 25% increase.
“It’s very good news,” Philippe Baptiste, president of CNES, said of the budget increase at a press conference later in the day. He added, though, that the allocation of funding to CNES, ESA and other initiatives remained to be determined.
That announcement, and the conference itself, comes at a critical time for ESA. The agency is preparing for its triennial ministerial council meeting in November where its 22 member states will meet and make funding decisions for the agency for the next three years. At the meeting there are debates and deals made behind closed doors about both existing programs and new proposals.
“Our proposal of a 25% increase is more or less keeping pace” with the US and China, said Aschbacher. “What we are aiming at doing is making sure we are not thrown out of the race.”
The ministerial is difficult enough in normal times, like the last one in 2019 (see “Funding Europe’s space ambitions”, The Space Review, December 2, 2019.) The upcoming meeting faces even bigger challenges, though. European economies are struggling from the aftermath of the pandemic and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation, recession fears, and increasing concerns about an energy crisis this winter because of a cutoff in Russian oil and gas are all wearing on Europeans.
The Russian invasion also affected ESA, wiping out significant levels of cooperation. ESA’s ExoMars rover mission, which was to launch this month on a Proton rocket, is instead still on the ground, its launch delayed until at least 2026. The loss of Soyuz has forced ESA to scramble to find new rides for several missions, a problem exacerbated by continued delays in the Ariane 6, whose first launch is now not expected until some time next year.
“You realize, especially in Europe, how dependent we are in space on Russia,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA. “We had to decouple our cooperation and our links with Russia very, very quickly. This is something that is not easy.”
ESA is leaning into those challenges. Speaking last week at another conference, World Satellite Business Week, Aschbacher announced ESA would request more than 18 billion euros over the next three years from member states at the ministerial (specifically, he later tweeted, 18.7 billion euros.) That would be a 25% increase over what ESA secured at the previous ministerial in 2019.
“I’m putting together a very ambitious package despite the current situation, despite the economic difficulties we have, because I firmly believe that, if we are not doing that, we will make a huge mistake in Europe,” he said.
That proposed increase is a response to ESA’s previous dependence on Russia, he said. “This realization of the dependence that we had is certainly a trigger and a message that I get very clearly, to make a package of ministerial proposals that is resilient, increases our independence and strengthens our European space sector overall to make sure that we can do what we need to do.”
Exactly what is in the ministerial remains under wraps. However, Aschbacher and other ESA officials have talked about increases in existing science, technology, and exploration programs, along with investment in new ones. That includes, on the exploration side, work on a large cargo lunar lander called the European Large Logistics Lander that could support later Artemis missions, as well as Moonlight, a lunar satellite communications network.
Asking for more money as European tighten their belts is no easy feat, with Aschbacher calling it more challenging than any previous ministerial. “This is not a good boundary condition for a ministerial conference,” he acknowledged. “Still, I believe that, because of this situation in which we are, we have to invest in space.”
“We are in a very intense phase of defining the elements of our program proposals to ensure countries’ interests,” he said at Sunday’s IAC press conference. “The members states are defining back home their contributions and their roles in the various programs.”
“We all hope that, despite the circumstances, as I mentioned before, the importance of space is recognized by the finance ministers, because, at the end of the day, they are the ones providing the funding,” he added.
In that regard, the French prime minister’s announcement earlier in the day was encouraging, provided France’s contribution to ESA increases in lockstep with its overall spending increase. Whether other major ESA nations follow suit, and how they decide to allocate their budgets, remains to be seen.
“Our top priority in Germany is a strong ESA,” said Walther Pelzer, director general of the German Space Agency, during a roundtable about the ministerial at IAC on Sunday. That means showing a united front in Europe that has maintained since the start of the war, he said.
“The big challenge at the end is to get all the member states going in the same direction,” said Anna Rathsman.
Those countries, though, will still be pushing for their own priorities at the ministerial, arguing they are as vital to European interests as they are to their own national interests. “There is some kind of love story between France and launchers,” said CNES’s Baptiste at the roundtable. (“Love and hate,” he added.) “We have always invested a lot on launchers. This is something which we believe in, because there is no European strategy in space if you don’t have European access to space.”
Aschbacher used the session to defend the proposed 25% budget increase, saying it was necessary to keep up with other major space powers, notably the United States and China. (NASA received about $24 billion in fiscal year 2022, an increase of 12% from 2019.) “Our proposal of a 25% increase is more or less keeping pace,” he said. “What we are aiming at doing is making sure we are not thrown out of the race.”
There is still a lot of work, and a lot of lobbying, to be done before ministers gather in Paris in late November for the council meeting. “The big challenge at the end is to get all the member states going in the same direction,” said Anna Rathsman, director general of the Swedish National Space Agency and chair of the ESA Council.
Aschbacher said he’ll be satisfied with the outcome of that meeting, one that will decide the fate of ESA programs for the next three years, if those ministers are satisfied. “The measure of success” he said, “is that the member states, when they come to the table at the ministerial level, are satisfied at the end of the day, and think they’ve done the right thing and the right decisions, and go home smiling.”
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.
Note: we are using a new commenting system, which may require you to create a new account.
A model of an Ariane 6 greets visitors to the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week. Keeping that vehicle on track is one of the priorities of the upcoming ESA ministerial council meeting that will fund agency programs for the next three years. (credit: J. Foust)
Europe seeks to stay in the space race
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 19, 2022
The 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC) started in Paris not on a Monday, as is traditionally the case, but instead on Sunday. The shift was reportedly a scheduling issue: the pandemic that delayed the 2020 IAC in Dubai to 2021 also delayed the 2021 IAC in Paris to 2022, and the only dates available at the convention center that straddles the Boulevard Périphérique, several kilometers from the heart of Paris, required the event to start over the weekend.
“You realize, especially in Europe, how dependent we are in space on Russia,” said Aschbacher. “We had to decouple our cooperation and our links with Russia very, very quickly. This is something that is not easy.”
That scheduling has not deterred turnout: more than 8,700 people have registered for the five-day conference, a record. (Being in Paris helps, no doubt; the event may not be so popular next year in Baku, Azerbaijan.) A large fraction of them made it to the opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning for the usual pomp and circumstance and entertainment, including a performance by the French Olympic breakdancing team.
There was also, though, politics. The event featured several French and European Union officials who used the ceremonies not just to welcome attendees to Paris and offer generic platitudes about space but also to make political points. Valérie Pécresse, president of the regional council of Île-de-France, the region that includes Paris, called for greater European support for the Ariane 6.
She was also critical of what she saw as unchecked commercial activities in space. “Space should not be dominated by market forces,” said Pécresse, an unsuccessful conservative candidate for the French presidency earlier this year. “Space should not be a hunting ground for billionaires.”
Later, Élisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, spoke at the opening ceremony, using the event to announce a major increase in government spending for space. She announced the government would allocate more than nine billion euros to space programs for the next three years, funding that would go to the French space agency CNES as well as France’s contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA). That funding represented a 25% increase.
“It’s very good news,” Philippe Baptiste, president of CNES, said of the budget increase at a press conference later in the day. He added, though, that the allocation of funding to CNES, ESA and other initiatives remained to be determined.
That announcement, and the conference itself, comes at a critical time for ESA. The agency is preparing for its triennial ministerial council meeting in November where its 22 member states will meet and make funding decisions for the agency for the next three years. At the meeting there are debates and deals made behind closed doors about both existing programs and new proposals.
“Our proposal of a 25% increase is more or less keeping pace” with the US and China, said Aschbacher. “What we are aiming at doing is making sure we are not thrown out of the race.”
The ministerial is difficult enough in normal times, like the last one in 2019 (see “Funding Europe’s space ambitions”, The Space Review, December 2, 2019.) The upcoming meeting faces even bigger challenges, though. European economies are struggling from the aftermath of the pandemic and, more recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation, recession fears, and increasing concerns about an energy crisis this winter because of a cutoff in Russian oil and gas are all wearing on Europeans.
The Russian invasion also affected ESA, wiping out significant levels of cooperation. ESA’s ExoMars rover mission, which was to launch this month on a Proton rocket, is instead still on the ground, its launch delayed until at least 2026. The loss of Soyuz has forced ESA to scramble to find new rides for several missions, a problem exacerbated by continued delays in the Ariane 6, whose first launch is now not expected until some time next year.
“You realize, especially in Europe, how dependent we are in space on Russia,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA. “We had to decouple our cooperation and our links with Russia very, very quickly. This is something that is not easy.”
ESA is leaning into those challenges. Speaking last week at another conference, World Satellite Business Week, Aschbacher announced ESA would request more than 18 billion euros over the next three years from member states at the ministerial (specifically, he later tweeted, 18.7 billion euros.) That would be a 25% increase over what ESA secured at the previous ministerial in 2019.
“I’m putting together a very ambitious package despite the current situation, despite the economic difficulties we have, because I firmly believe that, if we are not doing that, we will make a huge mistake in Europe,” he said.
That proposed increase is a response to ESA’s previous dependence on Russia, he said. “This realization of the dependence that we had is certainly a trigger and a message that I get very clearly, to make a package of ministerial proposals that is resilient, increases our independence and strengthens our European space sector overall to make sure that we can do what we need to do.”
Exactly what is in the ministerial remains under wraps. However, Aschbacher and other ESA officials have talked about increases in existing science, technology, and exploration programs, along with investment in new ones. That includes, on the exploration side, work on a large cargo lunar lander called the European Large Logistics Lander that could support later Artemis missions, as well as Moonlight, a lunar satellite communications network.
Asking for more money as European tighten their belts is no easy feat, with Aschbacher calling it more challenging than any previous ministerial. “This is not a good boundary condition for a ministerial conference,” he acknowledged. “Still, I believe that, because of this situation in which we are, we have to invest in space.”
“We are in a very intense phase of defining the elements of our program proposals to ensure countries’ interests,” he said at Sunday’s IAC press conference. “The members states are defining back home their contributions and their roles in the various programs.”
“We all hope that, despite the circumstances, as I mentioned before, the importance of space is recognized by the finance ministers, because, at the end of the day, they are the ones providing the funding,” he added.
In that regard, the French prime minister’s announcement earlier in the day was encouraging, provided France’s contribution to ESA increases in lockstep with its overall spending increase. Whether other major ESA nations follow suit, and how they decide to allocate their budgets, remains to be seen.
“Our top priority in Germany is a strong ESA,” said Walther Pelzer, director general of the German Space Agency, during a roundtable about the ministerial at IAC on Sunday. That means showing a united front in Europe that has maintained since the start of the war, he said.
“The big challenge at the end is to get all the member states going in the same direction,” said Anna Rathsman.
Those countries, though, will still be pushing for their own priorities at the ministerial, arguing they are as vital to European interests as they are to their own national interests. “There is some kind of love story between France and launchers,” said CNES’s Baptiste at the roundtable. (“Love and hate,” he added.) “We have always invested a lot on launchers. This is something which we believe in, because there is no European strategy in space if you don’t have European access to space.”
Aschbacher used the session to defend the proposed 25% budget increase, saying it was necessary to keep up with other major space powers, notably the United States and China. (NASA received about $24 billion in fiscal year 2022, an increase of 12% from 2019.) “Our proposal of a 25% increase is more or less keeping pace,” he said. “What we are aiming at doing is making sure we are not thrown out of the race.”
There is still a lot of work, and a lot of lobbying, to be done before ministers gather in Paris in late November for the council meeting. “The big challenge at the end is to get all the member states going in the same direction,” said Anna Rathsman, director general of the Swedish National Space Agency and chair of the ESA Council.
Aschbacher said he’ll be satisfied with the outcome of that meeting, one that will decide the fate of ESA programs for the next three years, if those ministers are satisfied. “The measure of success” he said, “is that the member states, when they come to the table at the ministerial level, are satisfied at the end of the day, and think they’ve done the right thing and the right decisions, and go home smiling.”
Jeff Foust (jeff@thespacereview.com) is the editor and publisher of The Space Review, and a senior staff writer with SpaceNews. He also operates the Spacetoday.net web site. Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone.
Note: we are using a new commenting system, which may require you to create a new account.
The availability of oxygen will be one of the main challenges to colonizing Mars – but a toaster-sized device could be the solution, the Washington Post reported.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently unveiled the new gadget – the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment – known as MOXIE.
MOXIE can produce oxygen from carbon dioxide, a gas that makes up nearly 96 percent of Mars’s atmosphere.
In their paper, the team explained that the small, golden box is part of NASA’s Perseverance Rover Mission that landed on the red planet in February 2021.
Since April 2021, the device has run a number of tests in which it produced oxygen during different times of day and various Martian seasonal conditions.
Researchers observed that MOXIE could produce roughly six grams of oxygen per hour, which is equivalent to the output of a simple terrestrial tree.
The experiments mark the first time that resources from another planet have been converted into something useful for human missions.
NASA and MIT researchers acknowledged some of the device’s limitations but added that it could help cut costs in maintaining future missions on Mars – instead of having to ship resources there, which is very costly.
“It’s what explorers have done since time immemorial,” said Jeffrey Hoffman, deputy principal investigator of the MOXIE mission. “Find out what resources are available where you’re going to, and find out how to use them.”
A Long March 2D rocket launched a Yunhai-1 military weather satellite September 21. (credit: Xinhua)
Four types of Fengyun meteorological satellites. (credit: CMA/SCS)
Haiyang 1 marine scientific remote sensing satellite. (credit: NSOAS)
Haiyang 2 research of dynamic ocean environment. (credit: CAST)
Huanjing 1 Disaster and Environmental Monitoring Satellite. (credit: CAST)
CBERS-4 or Ziyuan I-04 Earth resources satellite. (credit: INPE)
Ziyuan II Earth resources satellite. (credit: CAST)
Deployed GF 1 spacecraft. (credit: 
Deployed GF 1 spacecraft. (credit: 
Beijing 3 commercial optical remote sensing satellite. (credit: China-Arms.com)
1st Generation Jilin-1 remote sensing satellites. (credit: CGSTC/SCS)
2nd Generation Jilin-1 remote sensing satellites. (credit: CGSTC/SCS)
Ludi Kancha Weixing Land Survey Satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Tianhui 1 topographical satellite. (credit: CAST)
Possible Tianhui 2 topographical satellites. (credit: CCTV-4)
TJS 4 Probable ELINT satellite (Reflector not deployed). (credit: CCTV)
TJS 5 Probable Early Warning satellite. (credit: SAST)
Fanhui Shi Weixing 3 Satellite. (credit: CAST)
Jianbing 5 L-band SAR reconnaissance satellite. (credit: astronautix.com)
Jianbing 7 SAR reconnaissance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 6 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CAST)
Jianbing 10 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 9 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 11 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Yaogan 26 military surveillance satellite. (credit: CCTV)
Jianbing 8 satellite constellation. (credit: CAST)
Yaogan 35 triplet of satellites. (credit: CCTV)
Yaogan 30 triplet of satellites. (credit: CCTV)
Yaogan 32 military duo satellites (2018). (credit: CCTV)
Leaders of five space agencies—NASA, ESA, CSA, JAXA and ISRO—participate in a panel at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris September 18. Officials from China and Russia, previously announced to also be on the panel, were absent. (credit: IAF)
Astronaut Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot of the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission, participates in water egress training in a water tank in Building 260 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (credit: NASA)
Astronauts Fred W. Haise, Jr., Commander, left, and C. Gordon Fullerton in the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Orbiter 101 “Enterprise” prior to the fifth and final FF in the Approach and Landing Test (ALT) series, from DFRC. (credit: NASA)
The face of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, is seen in this color reproduction, taken from the third television transmission, from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its trans-lunar journey toward the moon. (credit: NASA)
This interior view of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, during the lunar landing mission. (credit: NASA)
A model of an Ariane 6 greets visitors to the International Astronautical Congress in Paris this week. Keeping that vehicle on track is one of the priorities of the upcoming ESA ministerial council meeting that will fund agency programs for the next three years. (credit: J. Foust)
jacksmars 