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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin
@cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
440 followers 370 following 1.2K posts
Astronomy & spaceflight weeb penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Starship x Space Launch System shipper. Chinese spaceflight news hunter.
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · Jul 13
What Is Happening In Chinese Spaceflight, Quarter 3 2025 Issue - What on Earth...?
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 8h
Someone has put the official livestream on YouTube: youtu.be/BIdof29oN8A
Orienspace Gravity-1 Y2 livestream
YouTube video by Aeronautics
youtu.be
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 16h
Orienspace's own mission overview video: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JIklHHVXKl...
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 16h
Quadruple trail of SRB fuel gold:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 16h
Probably the largest rocket to launch from a pad without an apparent deflector and/or sound suppression water system since...Starship?
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 16h
More photos from SpaceLens: m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 16h
More raw SRBs power goodness from m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...:
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 18h
Gravity-1 bouncing off its launch ship at sea with 4 SRBs putting out 600 tonnes of thrust at liftoff.
Photos from m.weibo.cn/detail/52205... & m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 18h
And I swear the rocket with its thermal blankets on before launch remains one of the most bizarre pre-launch preparations of any rocket that I have ever seen:
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 18h
The Jilin-1 commercial Earth observation satellite on board this Gravity-1 that launched just over an hour ago at 02:20 UTC is Wideband-02B-07, from a series not launched for over a year.

Launch photos via weibo.com/5396094153/Q...:
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Another view from a bit further - unfortunately weather isn't the best for viewing today:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Again I need to stress that Gravity-1's advertised capability is 6.5 tonnes to LEO and 4.2 tonnes to SSO (500 km altitude). That's well into @northropgrumman's previous Antares rockets' territory!

m.weibo.cn/detail/52205...
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cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social
Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Toasty but no clear debris, I call it a win over launch no. 1: x.com/hentailamb/s...
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Whoops they set the launch ship on fire again...
x.com/hentailamb/s...
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
And payload separation - that's a successful launch.
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
3rd stage solid rocket motor firing:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
1st stage and 2nd stage separations:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
First stage powered flight stage, after boosters separation:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Well that was a fun launch. The solid fuel motors really made big attitude changes during launch (probably because this one has a big dogleg during launch towards SSO).
Liftoff:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 19h
Liftoff occurred at ~02:20 UTC.
Here's the rocket pre-launch:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 20h
It's a pretty hazy morning for a launch:
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 20h
This 2nd Gravity-1 rocket has the same paint job as the 1st one almost 2 years ago, even down to the same sponsor (a furniture company). The launch mount seems to have been strengthened though after the 1st launch spilled lots of debris around the ship.
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 20h
Coming up probably ~20 minutes before launch - apparently the Jilin-1 Earth observation constellation has a satellite flying on this one, with the other 2 satellites coming from another customer that I didn't recognize.
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 21h
And here comes the livestream: live.bilibili.com/h5/23118988
哔哩哔哩直播
live.bilibili.com
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d
It appears there will be *official livestreams* so come back in about 8 hours to see these 4 powerful SRBs blasting off the "Oriental Spaceport" launch ship!

Photos by ASPT:
m.weibo.cn/detail/52202... / m.weibo.cn/detail/52203...
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Cosmic Penguin @cosmicpenguinov103.bsky.social · 1d
According to local reports, Orienspace is tasked to launch "3 satellites for a certain major Chinese constellation" this time, but it's unclear which one's hedging on a such an untried LSP like them.
Whatever happens w/ this Gravity-1 though, it should again look spectacular!
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