On May 5, Wenchang, Hainan, China was the closest rocket launch site to the equator. The Long March 5B carrier rocket successfully flew here, bringing a new-generation manned spaceship test ship weighing nearly 22 tons into space.
This is the first time that a rocket from China or even Asia has launched a spacecraft exceeding "20,000 kilograms." It once again broke the Chinese rocket record and further laid the "Five Five" family-the Long March 5 series rocket carrying capacity in the first echelon of active rockets in the world status.
So, what is the difference between the first show of the Long March 5B rocket, "Fat 5B", and the Long March 5 rocket, "Fat 5", which returned from the king at the end of last year? Significant? The reporter interviewed relevant experts in this regard.
"Fat" is not all the same
"Fat Five B" and "Fat Five" belong to the "family" of the Long March V series rockets. Due to the "large waist"-the large core diameter of the rocket, it is affectionately called "Fat Five", which is currently China's largest carrying capacity Rocket "family".
Compared with "Fat Five", "Fat Five B" is about 3 meters shorter, "height" is close to 54 meters, which is equivalent to 18 floors, and "weight" is about 20 tons lighter, nearly 850 tons. This is mainly because the "Fat Five B" lacks a core level 2 and an inter-level segment, and there is only one core level, that is, the "waist" has a part of the arrow body up.
However, the "head" of the "Fat Five B"-the fairing, is larger than the "Fat Five", with a height of more than 20 meters and a volume of more than 345 cubic meters.
Wang Jue, chief commander of the Changzheng 5B carrier rocket, the first academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, said that this is the rocket fairing with the largest payload capacity in China at present, and even the core module of a space station that is more than 10 meters long and 4 meters thick can be installed.
From this perspective, the "head" of "Fat Five B" is specially designed to launch the core module and experimental module of the manned spaceflight engineering space station, which can be said to be "private customization".
Different "carrying capacity"
These differences in "look" also doomed the difference in "carrying ability" and "mission" of these two "brothers".
From the perspective of "carrying capacity", "Fat 5" has a geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity of approximately 14 tons, and "Fat 5 B" has a near-Earth orbit carrying capacity of not less than 22 tons.
In terms of "mission", the "Fat Five" is more advanced and is good at running "long-distance". "Passenger" destinations include 36,000 kilometers of geosynchronous orbit, the moon 380,000 kilometers away, and the nearest distance. It takes tens of millions of kilometers to Mars.
The "passengers" of "Fat 5" include various large satellites with high orbits and various deep space probes, such as the Chang'e-5 lunar probe and the Mars probe.
"Fat Five B" focuses on the orbit of about 200 to 400 kilometers near the earth, which is the main battlefield for the construction of China's space station.
Even if there is one less level, the "Fat Five B" has the greatest strength among the Long March rockets that are specially delivered to low-Earth orbit. It can deliver more than 22 tons at a time, which is equivalent to the weight of more than 10 cars.
This "strength" has also made it possible for China to launch larger spacecraft. For example, each compartment of the space station weighs more than 20 tons, and only the "Fat Five B" can be launched. In the follow-up, the main cabins and experimental cabins of the Chinese space station will be sent to the sky by "Fat Five B".
Therefore, the "Fat Five B" is called the "exclusive train" of the China Space Station, and its significance is evident.
"Leave the way" for heavy rockets
Of course, in addition to building a space station, "Fat Five B" also has its far-reaching significance. According to the rocket experts of the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the successful first flight of this type of rocket has further laid the status of China's large e-rocket carrier as the world's first echelon, with Russian Proton-M rocket, American Falcon-9 rocket, Delta The IV rocket and the European Ariane-5 rocket have the same carrying capacity.
At the same time, the Long March 5B rocket is also one of the representatives of the serial development of a new generation of launch vehicles in China and will provide important technical accumulation for the development of subsequent heavy launch vehicles.
Wang Jue revealed that from the establishment of the project to the first flight, the Long March 5B has experienced nearly ten years of research and development, which can be described as "10 years of grinding an arrow"-
In November 2011, the Long March 5B carrier rocket officially approved the project and assumed the task of launching the space station cabin segment;
In January 2012, the plan of the Long March 5B carrier rocket passed the review and transferred to the initial sample development stage;
In November 2018, the Changzheng 5B carrier rocket was transferred to the stage of sample development;
On January 19, 2020, the Long March 5 B Yaoyi carrier rocket successfully passed the factory review. The first flight mission load was a new generation manned spaceship test ship and return cabin test cabin.
"As a new type of launch vehicle specially developed for the construction of a manned spaceflight engineering space station, the successful first flight of the Long March 5B rocket marked that the space station project construction has entered a substantial stage." Wang Jue said.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui Source: China Youth Daily