The Problems with China's Space Program

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Credits:
Producer/Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Head of Production: Mike Ridolfi
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Writer/Research: Josi Gold
Animator: Eli Prenten
Animator: Stijn Orlans
Sound and Production Coordinator: Graham Haerther
Sound: Donovan Bullen
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster
Head of Moral: Shia LeWoof

References:

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Abdullah Alotaibi, Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[RealEngineering]

To all the weird communism loving tankies in the comments. The only people being paid to parrot governments on YouTube are the likes of Tim Pool

However, if America wants to pay me for having a correct opinion, I am very open to that. I would love more money for existing.

[Maxrauchenberger]

"Please adjust your location quickly" got me

[olivergs]

Whenever you see fuming oxidiser, just run

[robk]

A few decades ago, national geographic had an article on people living in the junk path of the Soviet space program. Unspent fuel was in the groundwater and one photo stood out... a pic of about a dozen boys all born with the same arm missing.

[JayRappa]

Can you imagine if SPaceX announced a launch and informed people of Texas to “adjust your location if a rocket falls?”

[DrDavidThor]

"Adjust your location" is on par comically with "duck and cover."

[fluffernaut]

14:01 "I decided my audience was intelligent enough"
Me: "bold of you to assume I have more than two brain cells"

[MartinRenner]

2:17

Holy sh*t. Imagine you're just minding your own business, farming and stuff, and then a goddamn _space rocket_ hits your village out of nowhere.

[Mimas]

My 9th grade Physics teacher used to work in the NASA office that would track near earth orbit debris and once in 2008, China launched a satellite, and the proceeded to launch a missile and blew up their own satellite. This greatly annoyed everyone in his office because one object with a transponder had become thousands of smaller objects without transponders

[EthelJung-jw]

GPS is not the only way the government can track you, which brings us to today's sponsor Nord VPN

[el]

I saw people in the comments talking about the "please adjust your location quickly" and I want to say that's actually ONLY A PART of the actual message. The real message is shown in the video however it is in chinese. BECAUSE THE VIDEO ONLY TRANSLATED ONE SENTENCE IT CAUSED MANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS!!

Here is the full translation of the actual message shown in the video which was in chinese:
According to the notice from the superior, the Xichang Satellite Launch Center will conduct a launch operation at around 9 am on November 23, 2019. Fourteen villages, including [lists villages], are located in the area where satellite debris might fell. At that time, please CUT OFF THE POWER AT HOME 20 MINUTES IN ADVANCE AND GO TO THE SHELTER (THAT WAS MADE FOR THIS PURPOSE). If you see an object falling from the air, please adjust your position quickly to avoid being hurt. If you find any debris, please do not approach or pick it up, because it may contain chemicals that are harmful to the human body. If you find rocket debris, please contact the village committee immediately. Please pass this message to others.

I hope this clarifies some misunderstandings, thank you for taking the time to read this :)

[regolith]

The Space Shuttle is a useful comparison to the Long March 5B in that it also had no upper (second) stage, but unlike the Long March, the Shuttle did NOT drop rocket stages on unsuspecting villages in Africa. The Shuttle accomplished this by very intentionally shutting its main engines just short of actually reaching orbit. It would jettison its multi-ton orange external tank which, because it was still in a suborbital trajectory, would fall back down, into a KNOWN & PRE-PLANNED location in the ocean. The tank-less Shuttle would now use the small, built-in orbital maneuvering thrusters (OMS) to add that last bit of energy to achieve orbital velocity. The Shuttle's first flight was in 1981. It was built in the 70s. Design began in the 60s. This has been a well understood problem with a known solution for half a century: shut down first stage engines prior to orbit, then use small thrusters or a kickstage for final orbital insertion. China does what it does because it just doesn't give a f*ck.

I even heard them at one news conference trying to gaslight the world by referring to the giant first stage as an UPPER (second) stage (meaning only the side boosters were the first stage) and claiming that it's "standard practice" around the world to leave upper stages to deorbit on their own, in an uncontrolled manner. Technically both the Long March 5B and the Space Shuttle orbiter are what some people call a first stage sustainer.. Nobody calls it a second (upper) stage.

[AndrewSellers]

Did I miss a mention of the Long March 6A, the rocket where the upper stages like to explode in orbit? Pretty worrying, for a number of reasons.

[SRFriso]

The Long March 6A might be even worse than the 5B, because with the 6A, the second stage keeps breaking apart while in orbit and just makes the mess there even bigger.

[johnathanclayton]

5:28 lol, if you see a rocket coming at you, run!

[Hippo]

You didn't mention a important info regarding the Beidou positioning system/network: the current version is fully usable with passive receivers, just like GPS, Galileo or GLONASS. In fact modern chips in most phones support all these systems and are pure receivers.
While it has the feature for two way communication this is not not relevant for consumer devices, the senders are more expensive, have bigger antennas and consume too much power. So the are only viable for vehicles, especially military.
Tracking of individuals happens via cell phone towers on the ground and software on our phones that shares the location via internet connection...

[counterfit]

11:47 NASA successfully landed a rover on their first attempt in 1997. Their previous failures had been flybys or static landers.

[Velereonics]

We must stop and appreciate how fkng cool the space shuttle was.

[timothysturm]

you went above and beyond for your sponsor there

[ryaneylee]

that's a rather long segue into ground news