/sci/ - Science & Math

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3221831/china-supersizing-its-rocket-industry-and-its-coming-starlink

long article by South China Morning Post
> The South China Morning Post (SCMP), with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group.[2][3] Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained Hong Kong's newspaper of record since British colonial rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Morning_Post

> The country is constructing an unprecedented rocket assembly plant capable of producing 50 Long March 8 rockets a year, according to scientists involved in the project.

> Once completed next year, the mega factory on the tropical island Hainan will nearly double China’s annual launch capacity – already one of the world’s largest.

> The Long March 8 is a low-cost, non-reusable rocket that can house more than 20 Starlink-sized communication satellites. China intends to use the medium-sized launch vehicle, which has seen two successful test launches, to send more than 1,000 satellites into space every year, comparable to the current pace of SpaceX.

> But the new rocket is also designed to put satellites in a higher orbit than the Starlink satellites. The more advantageous altitude would allow Chinese satellites to monitor or even suppress their American rivals.

> The race to “build a giant satellite constellation is driving China’s space industry into a new age”, said Song Zhengyu, a senior rocket scientist with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), who is leading the Long March 8 team, in a paper published in the Chinese Journal of Astronautics last month.