China Will Attempt 30-Plus Launches in 2019, Including Crucial Long March 5 Missions (spacenews.com)

New submitter starmanaj shares a report: The main contractor for the Chinese space program is planning more than 30 launches in 2019, with major missions including the crucial return-to-flight of the heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket in July. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), announced Jan. 29 that it would aim to loft more than 50 spacecraft on 30-plus launches this year. Among these will be the third launch on the Long March 5, a 5-meter-diameter, 57-meter-tall heavy-lift launch vehicle which failed in its second flight in July 2017, delaying the Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission and the construction of the Chinese Space Station. The mission will take place in July at the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island, CASC vice president Yang Baohua said at a Jan. 29 news conference in Beijing, which also saw the release of a "Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities."

Comments

Re:How much...

[Killall -9 Bash]

you can't steal things that Elon has copylefted. Elon's philosophy is that people who steal your tech are followers, and they ultimately won't be able to compete. They'll always be 2 steps behind, analyzing what you're currently doing. Elon copylefting everything is a clever trap.

Equal to Blue Origin, Orbital & SpaceX

[mykepredko]

I know over the years, there have been some discussion on whether or not spaceflight should be big government funded (von Braun was a big proponent of this) or leave it to entrepreneurs/adventurers. While Paul Allen's Stratolaunch is somewhat in limbo now, it seems like in the US the trend is to go with entrepreneurs with SpaceX, Orbital and Blue Origin leading the way. Hopefully the SLS development effort will be retired, as will the Ariane 6 both being too costly compared to the commercial options meaning that the only big government launches will be from Russia and China.

I picked SpaceX, Orbital and Blue Origin because if you total their launch manifests for 2019, they'll have at least 30 - There will be multiple manned missions in there (by Blue Origin and SpaceX) and quite an array of different capabilities.

It's one thing for the second biggest economy in the world to have 30 launches but I think it's a lot more impressive that private capital will provide the same number of launches