China’s Rocket Dropping Habit

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by visiting dashlane. com/primalspace. On the 3rd of January 2019, China became the
first nation to successfully land a spacecrafton the far side of the Moon. This incredible achievement showed just how
impressive China’s space program has become. With the most amount of annual launches and
the capability of launching humans into orbit,China is now regarded as one of the most powerful
space programs in the world. But among all of the success, there is a dark
side to China’s Space Program. With their extremely relaxed safety standards, rockets are frequently launched over inhabited areas -sometimes crashing into populated
towns and villages. In this video, we’re going to look at why
China began launching over inhabited areasin the first place. We’re also going to look at how their quest to develop reusable rockets might fix this issue altogether. In the midst of the cold war, the US and the
Soviet Union were constantly demonstratingtheir advancements in nuclear weapons and
missile technology. In 1957, the Soviets launched the first ever
satellite into orbit – and China realisedit needed to create its own space program
in order to keep up. Over the course of two decades, China built
three main launch sites – capable of launchingmissiles and satellites into orbit. These launch sites were built thousands of
kilometers inland to make them less exposedto enemy attacks. But this came at a cost, since rockets had
to be launched directly over populated areas. When choosing the best location for a launch site, there are a couple of factors that come into play. As a rocket leaves the launch pad, it pitches
over to gain the incredible amount of horizontalvelocity needed to get into orbit. Because of this, launch sites are typically
located on the coast where falling rocketparts can safely fall into the ocean. Another factor that determines the location
of a launch site is the latitude. Launch sites closer to the equator benefit
from the extra speed of the Earth’s rotation,meaning the rocket requires less energy to
get into orbit. But in the midst of the Cold War – and with
tensions at an all time high, China went inlandand further north for their launch sites. Throughout the 60’s and 70’s, China quickly
became one of the major powers in space – creatingheavy lift rockets and successfully launching
and recovering a satellite. But in a rush to catch up to the American
and Soviet space programs, safety standardsbecame less of a priority. In 1996, China were launching their largest
rocket ever built, the Long March 3B. As soon as it left the launch pad, it immediately
began veering off course before crashing intoa nearby village 20 seconds later. This disaster killed at least 6 people – however
many reports outside of China estimate thatthe death toll was in the hundreds. Although this disaster was caused by an unexpected
fault in the rocket, it didn’t stop Chinafrom launching over populated areas. Over the last 10 years, there have been several reports of rocket debris falling onto people’s homes. Many of China’s launches take place from
their XiChang launch site. As the Long March 3B launches, the 4 boosters are dropped shortly before the enormous first stage. Although China try to drop these rockets stages
onto unpopulated areas of forrest, there arearound 14 villages directly in the path of
the launch site. A few days before these launches take place,
the government send out evacuation noticesto the local residents – telling them to turn
off their power and find a safe place to hide. To make matters worse, the Long March 3B rocket uses hypergolic fuel which is extremely toxic -so residents are told to stay far away from
the debris once it has landed. Every nation has its own style of operating
in space, but China’s history with spacehas led many other nations to lose trust in
them. Despite having one of the most advanced space
programs in the world, China has never beenallowed to participate in the International
Space Station. Even though China would bring a large amount
of money to the table, the US officially bannedthem from the ISS since they feared China
would only use the opportunity to steal technology. But when it comes to dealing with human safety,
it’s not surprising that China weren’tallowed to take part. But China is finally doing something to break
away from their rocket dropping habit. A new launch site has been built on the island
of Hainan, which will allow some of China’slargest rockets to launch over sea. China has started to add grid fins to some
of their rockets – similar to the ones seenon the Falcon 9. This gives the rocket the ability to steer
itself to a precise point as it falls out of the sky. Although this is mostly likely a sign that
China is trying to develop a reusable rocket,it at least has the benefit of saving innocent
people from falling rocket stages. Thanks to Dashlane for supporting this episode
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