Lots of good stuff coming in the next couple of days, so stay tuned. I noticed that that GoogleEarth now has a June 2008 image of Mianyang, home to China’s weapons design and fabrication facilities, and which I visited in 2007. (The city, not the design and fabrication facilities.) 31°27’42.76“N, 104°44’27.25“E Using GoogleEarth, I think …
Japan Weighs in on the Sejil
by | 2009-11-02 | 16 Comments
click on the image for a larger version There has probably never been a discussion on ACW that has aroused as much animated technical discussion as the thrust vector control (TVC) for Sejil. This is almost entirely due to the troubling ambiguity of two cables/tubes that run down the lower half of the first stage. …
Qian Xuesen (1911-2009)
by | 2009-11-02 | 2 Comments
Update | 12:42 November 3, 2009 As if on cue, Michael Wines in the New York Times ledes Qian’s obituary with the grossly inaccurate statement that Qian “single-handedly led China’s space and military rocketry efforts.” No, he didn’t. Not single-handedly, at least. Qian Xuesen — often called the “father of China’s space and missile programs” …
Name That Missile
by | 2009-11-01 | 10 Comments
From the 2010 wall calendar, “Scenic Missile Tests of Iran.” (Just kidding.) Confusion surrounds the names used for ballistic missiles in Iran, where designators seem to come and go unpredictably. But a just smidgen of linguistic information may clarify the picture. Let’s review. So far, Iran has launched or flight-tested the following types: a family …
