LOL really? What progress other countries have made so far in regards of launch vehicles, space suits, training food, docking or data etc.?
North Korea and Iran are limited to just pamplets and photos and will take at least two decades before becoming mature satellite launchers, human missions are far fetched.
Pamphlets and photos? Do you realize that North Korea don't even preannounces its rocket launches in advance, unlike China and India?
Back in 2017, the Hwasong-12, Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 ICBMs were all launched to the great surprise of the public that wasn't even aware of their existences.
As for Iran, it was initially planned for 2016! Only derailed due to the election of President Rouhani and his will to appease the West after signing the JCPOA accord.
Please keep in mind that for team Iran-North Korea, this is of the most vital military interest, as it allows to test a 2 tons reentry vehicle to be recovered, under the guise of a dual use military-civilian technology. If successful, the DPRK and Iran would have mastered Post Boost Vehicle technologies as well.
And these were the technologies the U.S. critics of China wanted to prevent the P.R.C. to develop with the dual-use Shenzhou manned space program back in the 1990s!
Team Iran-North Korea has the ICBM, both liquid (Hwasong-15) and solid (Pukguksong-5) but still hasn't demonstrate to possess Reentry Vehicle and Post Boost Vehicle technologies.
Iran will launch this month the first version of Kavoshgar-9 biocapsule, a recoverable capsule of 75% the size of the manned spacecraft! Then the full size Kavoshgar-10 will follow, possibly by June.
Five more will be launched before a human can replace the dummy astronaut.
Kavoshgar-9 should be 1.25 meter in diameter, or 3/4 scale model.
Kavoshgar-10 should be full size, with 2 meters in diameter.
This means with 5 successful unmanned tests, from Kavoshgar-10 to Kavoshgar-14 the manned mission will start with Kavoshgar-15 at the earliest!
Iran Manned Space Race For The 4th Place
Mission
| Launch date | Altitude | Crew | Spacecraft | Launcher |
Iran 1 | First half of 2021 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-9 | Shahab-1 |
Iran 2 | Mid-2021 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-10 | Safir-1D |
Iran 3 | First half of 2022 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-11 | Safir-1D |
Iran 4 | Mid-2022 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-12 | Safir-1D |
Iran 5 | First half of 2023 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-13 | Safir-1D |
Iran 6 | Mid-2023 | Suborbital 190 km | Dummy | Kavoshgar-14 | Safir-1D |
Iran 7 | 11 February 2024
Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Victory
(Yekshanbeh, 22 Bahman 1402) | Suborbital 190 km | Iran's first astronaut | Kavoshgar-15 | Safir-1D |
https://archive.is/uDuOa/0dd6b120bfd5521fcff62cc9b3b6a7153efd3961.jpg ; https://archive.is/uDuOa/31e70228fc3f11c223357f95ce67531871611fce/scr.png ; https://web.archive.org/web/20210225075243/https://i.imgur.com/yP4GTQj.jpg
▲ 1.The Kavoshgar 1 to 11 biocapsules family, as of February 2021.
Europeans and Japanese haven't even announced plans and too late to start tests for human rating.
Because I am the only one in PDF to follow the space news, doesn't mean that the Japanese haven't announced their plan.
Japan In The Manned Space Race
PD AeroSpace
Japanese startup PD AeroSpace aims for commercial space travel in 2023
2018/09/04/
The startup PD AeroSpace Ltd. is developing a reusable spacecraft shaped like an airplane to carry paying customers into space by 2023.
The Nagoya-based company plans to offer space flights up to an altitude of 110 kilometers using the craft, which is capable of carrying six passengers and two pilots, at a price of ¥17 million ($153,000) per person.
Currently, 11 workers at a plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, are working to fly an unmanned test vehicle up to an altitude of 100 km.
“We would like to open a new space era (with the spacecraft),” said Shuji Ogawa, the 48-year-old president of PD AeroSpace.
Last summer, the company successfully carried out a combustion experiment with the spacecraft’s pulse detonation engine, which can switch from air-breathing mode, where propulsion is achieved through pushing out hot exhaust gases, to rocket mode.
According to the company’s plan, the spaceship will change its mode of combustion at an altitude of 15 km to ascend further, and passengers will be able to enjoy a near weightless experience for about five minutes while staring down at Earth.
By launching a reusable spacecraft from airport runways, PD AeroSpace aims to keep costs down compared to using nonreusable rockets.
Ogawa founded the startup in 2007 after being inspired by Scaled Composites LLC’s SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first privately owned piloted vehicle to reach space. It won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, established to encourage entrepreneurship in space travel.
The space tourism industry at one point lost steam due to a series of accidents and a reluctance to invest in the field, but it appears to have regained momentum, with U.S. companies taking the lead.
Backed by investments from firms such as ANA Holdings Inc., as well as support from some 40 expert volunteer workers, PD AeroSpace is trying to overcome numerous challenges, including the procurement of funds.
“Space has the power to attract people,” Ogawa said.
The startup PD AeroSpace Ltd. is developing a reusable spacecraft shaped like an airplane to carry paying customers into space by 2023. The Nagoya-based co
www.japantimes.co.jp
High-end tourists from China targeted as Japan’s new ‘space port’ prepares for lift-off
Published: 5:38pm, 14 Sep, 2020
• Spacecraft developer PD AeroSpace is developing an airport on an island in Okinawa prefecture for space tourism by 2025
• The company is eyeing wealthy adventure seekers, particularly those from China, for initial flights that are expected to cost around US$141,000
Japan ’s first passenger “space port” is to be built on the tiny Okinawan island of Miyako Shimojishima, with spacecraft developer PD AeroSpace aiming to be aloft by 2025 as it seeks to attract adventurous travellers from across the region – particularly well-heeled thrillseekers from China.
The company, based in the city of Nagoya in central Japan, has reached an agreement with the Okinawa prefectural government to develop the island’s little-used airport for use as the departure point for its state-of-the-art space plane, as well as landing facilities for returning tourists.
“We plan to target people from across Asia and we believe there are a lot of people who would very much like to go into space if only the price of a flight was lower,” said Ryo Ojima from PD Aerospace’s business development department. He confirmed the company was “targeting people from China” for its flights, but said they would take anyone who wants to experience space.
Ojima said initial flights would last for about 90 minutes and reach an altitude of 100km, which the World Air Sports Federation has set as the boundary between the atmosphere and space. For five minutes, passengers will be able to experience the weightless conditions of astronauts, while the journey will provide stunning views of the Earth.
“We are aiming to reach 100km because that is what is known as the Karman line, or the ‘gateway to the universe’,” he said.
The cost of a flight is expected to be around Ұ15 million (US$141,000), Ojima told This Week in Asia, or around 70 per cent of the cost proposed by similar space tourism ventures.
“We selected Miyako Shimojishima for four primary reasons,” he said. “It has a 3,000-metre runway, it has a training airspace that is aligned north-south, it faces the ocean and the local authorities have been cooperative.”
Tourism-dependent Okinawa has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with people working in the local travel industry describing the outlook as “grim”. As such, experts say, the possibility of space tourism in the next five years could provide a much-needed boost for the prefecture.
“Okinawa has felt the loss of the China market due to the coronavirus, so it makes complete sense that they would go after wealthy travellers from the big cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong – as their passengers,” said Ashley Harvey, general manager of destination management firm Aviareps Japan.
“All those cities have huge populations, large numbers of people with money to spend and easy access to Okinawa. These are people who have already travelled overseas and have seen many of the major attractions around the world, so they are going to be looking for something completely different, something that none of their friends have tried before.
“An experience like this would be something special and something that enough people would want to try to make it a viable business.”
In its first year of operations, PD AeroSpace expects to take around 100 people into orbit, but it plans to operate 200 flights a year – carrying 1,000 passengers – by 2030. It has big ambitions beyond these initial flights and ultimately intends to be involved in the construction of an orbiting space hotel.
The company has tied up with All Nippon Airways (ANA) and domestic travel giant HIS, with a spokeswoman for HIS pointing out that a number of legal revisions need to be passed before space travel can become a reality.
“We believe there will be strong demand, initially from Japan but very quickly after that from across the entire region [once that hurdle has been overcome],” she said.
Miyako Shimojishima, which is nearly 300km from Okinawa’s main island, covers an area of just 10 sq km and is connected to neighbouring islands by bridges.
Its airport was built in 1979 to serve as Japan’s sole pilot training facility for jet aircraft, with ANA and Japan Airlines
using the facility until it became significantly cheaper to train pilots on simulators. The airfield is presently used for tourist flights.
“It’s a very appealing and dream-inspiring proposal,” Okinawa prefecture vice governor Kiichiro Jahana said of PD AeroSpace’s plan. “The space industry is a field with high future prospects and one that continues to grow around the world … This will have a positive ripple effect across the entire prefecture.”
PD AeroSpace is developing an airport on an island in Okinawa prefecture for space tourism by 2025, and is eyeing wealth adventure seekers – particularly those from China.
www.scmp.com
https://archive.is/xRy0n/7fe1d311fbdd510abd58f61eabab0d4e5e0a93ed.png ; https://archive.is/xRy0n/df90d5daf40970542127a154b15fee6672efd4b4/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914172645/https://i.imgur.com/4z2Wjov.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 2. Pegasus vs New Sheppard & SpaceShip Two.
https://archive.vn/Ph47O/bc8f15784841f17c23601a66b657da329b3ac7bc.png ; https://archive.vn/Ph47O/dd873947322e38838c0593634ab74b328dd4deb0/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914172907/https://i.imgur.com/Y9cCHqt.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 3. Switchable Dual Combustion Mode engine.
https://archive.vn/BRXMq/7bc2cfeaed3c945e3c4b67a602af97d07a6e67da.png ; https://archive.vn/BRXMq/0530ce68e0b8bdb8f3d017a2443a904684bc88f8/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914173146/https://i.imgur.com/N3JR5mo.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 4. From Jet Mode To Rocket Mode.
https://archive.vn/4s1W8/261dba9ecd863297e63c32b4e7a8a9e1f86b8b2f.png ; https://archive.vn/4s1W8/18cf4c37b99029ba2f7ce6283dbb81048031e5ed/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914173543/https://i.imgur.com/Bka8GaX.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 5. PDAS-X06 & PDAS-X07 Demonstrators.
https://archive.vn/S8eC8/1febc34264ff647637d589719cd7f75e09eba8e9.png ; https://archive.vn/S8eC8/bac0598d7365caec07a2230392ca4320bd21ade2/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914173805/https://i.imgur.com/ebJ3MMI.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 6. Pegasus Suborbital Spaceplane.
https://archive.vn/Z78DD/47b4a9e6decd2caf1e508d70f339041fea20023b.png ; https://archive.vn/Z78DD/36ec61082e65e71bc59eac8ef3f6852f18682636/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20200914173958/https://i.imgur.com/W5zx8PI.png ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/index.html ; https://pdas.co.jp/en/documents/Company_Outline_EN.pdf ; https://imgur.com/a/13KLAK2
▲ 7. Suborbital space flight profile.
LOL really? What progress other countries have made so far in regards of launch vehicles, space suits, training food, docking or data etc.?
Taiwan was about to launch its first space rocket the HAPITH-V last year just before the COVID-19 crisis.
The secret is a professional engineer with 30 years of career working in the U.S. NASA.
China could leap frog in 1960s because its chief designer, Dr Qian Xuesen spent time in the U.S. from 1936 to 1955, working at the Caltech and JPL, while retrieving for the U.S. military captured ballistic missile tech from defeated Germany during WWII.
Same for Thailand. No need to spent two decades at home, a first space launch can be achieved after only two years if the skill of the lead engineer is of world class.
And as correctly predicted back in 2019, Thailand joining the space race!
We are moving forward into a new era by planning to develop space technologies for future space travel. Generally, a majority might view that building a spaceship or spacecraft is a futuristic idea and sometimes it feels surreal.
However, building a spaceship with a complexity of technologies is one of the challenging tasks that a company wants to achieve, it might take 1-2 years to complete, mu Space is the first and only company who steps into this path and strives to make things happen. If we don’t start it now, then when?
Objective
• Orbital Flight
• Earth orbit missions
• ISS resupply
• Cis-lunar missions
https://archive.vn/tGc76/c750ed44e9b9ded4585d7e6b8d6f7d9ee4131a3f.jpg ; https://archive.vn/tGc76/7bf8b90df0ccd79b7f871939cffc1a5b8ebf5ad7/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210306114044/https://i.imgur.com/jprg2OW.jpg
▲ 8. Space Tourism by 2025.
https://archive.vn/XJG8z/fa0ebace672320b6c5ce6207458159b5710c4d28.jpg ; https://archive.vn/XJG8z/c0d25c4d5c05dd23288921185e2e675dd9079ef7/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20190109152605/https://www.muspacecorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/OO-mission-spacesuit.jpg ;
▲ 9. Mu Space conceptual spacesuit. 2019.
http://web.archive.org/web/20201203114051/https://muspacecorp.com/spaceship/
http://web.archive.org/web/20210228072023/https://muspacecorp.com/spaceship/
https://archive.vn/QNj4g#selection-437.5-439.303
http://web.archive.org/web/20201229120524/https://www.satellite-evolution.com/post/mu-space-to-push-thai-space-industry-planning-to-build-its-first-spaceship-in-2021
https://archive.vn/Xet9g/492b484c005c179c281ea4311ad7387bca51d3a9.jpg ; https://archive.vn/Xet9g/1fc7b563524bb47e4cc42fa17fb1b097ffde4f9a/scr.png ;
http://web.archive.org/web/20210302101723/https://i.imgur.com/8yj1OVY.jpg
▲ 10. Spaceship's schematics.
https://archive.vn/0mtbl/2c4e31f272ddeef29a70162ea9453b91ee29d46f.jpg ; https://archive.vn/0mtbl/14d6679fbf22881b54822098a5ebd72a7a3761a6/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210302101758/https://i.imgur.com/Ggd4kxl.jpg
▲ 11. Spaceship design and prototype.
https://archive.vn/yk5Gf/c2994cc57e28a10db1dc410b9fcb8f5bdd120d29.jpg ; https://archive.vn/yk5Gf/f5df79c3fc8596fc5b7ca10f0e946a30148c711d/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210302101850/https://i.imgur.com/YKLs7V2.jpg
▲ 12. Spaceship automated robotic factory.
https://archive.vn/1838n/9350b2237784d6bbb0df7c50245a953e5051c888.jpg ; https://archive.vn/1838n/5173539552c61e4e67e364a11395b7a31e0ae82e/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210302101936/https://i.imgur.com/nP99JE4.jpg
▲ 13. Spaceship Vs New Sheppard et al. size comparison.
In the centuries old tradition with the invention of the most amazing flying rockets, check this Siamese
SPACESHIP,that will carry astronauts into space by 2025!
https://archive.vn/GGnLN/fe1d0e7290d89c7a4129057070cc59c80791770c.jpg ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210302102008/https://i.imgur.com/WRZwsex.jpg
▲ 14. CGI rendering of Spaceship.
And not to be confused with the U.S.
STARSHIP!
https://archive.vn/6fvc5/fda1bf93c2c2388d7ca09d594b21cbe364df414d.jpg ; https://archive.vn/6fvc5/b8656a3602761eddc53d28a36ca0e13060506282/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210305123706/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EvorWQeU8AcQNMu?format=jpg&name=900x900
▲ 15. Starship SN10 exploding after fatal crash landing!
The current lineup of all the competitors for the 4th space race:
https://archive.vn/15xcb/210f2355242ffc4ce97fb8870111c9b19716aa19.jpg ; https://archive.vn/15xcb/3bd39178dbd3f41fe8fe814a3fcf1cc9ae248648/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210302104318/https://i.imgur.com/JxkJviu.jpg
▲ 16. Competitors of the 4th Space Race, as of March 2021.