The John Batchelor Show
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
S8 Ep1312: Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center analyzes China's advancement in space and its competition with the United States. Fisher discusses China's Gandai constellation, a space debris monitoring satellite system controlled by the P
9 minutes Posted Aug 20, 2026 at 12:10 am.
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Rick Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center analyzes China's advancement in space and its competition with the United States. Fisher discusses China's Gandai constellation, a space debris monitoring satellite system controlled by the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which tracked a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster crashing near the moon's Einstein crater from over 380,000 kilometers away. He warns that this constellation can perform dual-use military targeting for space combat and missile defense. Fisher criticizes China's lack of transparency, noting its refusal to give advance notice for earthbound ICBM tests and its intention to let expendable propulsion stages crash into the lunar surface. Finally, he highlights the rapid progress of China's LandSpace with its liquid-fueled, methane-oxygen-powered reusable Zhuque-3 rocket, predicting that ten Chinese companies will offer cheap reusable launch services within five years and directly undercut Western competitors. (2)