Chinanews.com, Beijing, December 22. Title: A new generation of rockets all unveiled in China to explore the universe with steady pace
Author Guo Chaokai Wang Weitong
On December 22, the Long March 8 carrier rocket ignited at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, sending five satellites into the predetermined orbit with "one arrow and five stars", and the mission was a complete success.
The successful first flight of the Long March 8 rocket signifies that China's new-generation carrier rocket has completed its debut during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.
Wang Xiaojun, Dean of China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said: "During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Long March 5, Long March 7, and Long March 8 successfully flew for the first time and successively undertook major aerospace projects. The mission provides strong support for the building of a space power."
At 12:37 on December 22, Beijing time, the Long March 8 carrier rocket was successfully launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, sending five satellites into the predetermined orbit with "one arrow and five stars".
Photo by Wanke
A new generation of launch vehicles unveiled
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, China's new generation of carrier rockets collectively appeared, gradually taking on important tasks in intensive and complex space missions. The development of China's carrier rockets has entered a new stage of green and pollution-free development, and its carrying capacity has reached a world-class level.
From 2015 to 2016, the Long March 5, Long March 6, Long March 7, and Long March 11 4 new generation rockets have completed their first flight missions.
The first flight of the Type 4 rocket within two years has not only been unprecedented in international aerospace, but also greatly enhanced China's ability to enter space, and further enriched and improved the basic structure of the new generation of carrier rocket series.
The new-generation launch vehicle adopts non-toxic and non-polluting propellant. On the basis of inheriting current launch vehicle technology, it has overcome dozens of items such as 120-ton liquid oxygen/kerosene engine, 50-ton hydrogen-oxygen engine, and 5-meter diameter rocket body structure design and manufacture. The key technology is difficult, and the carrying capacity and rocket performance have reached the current international advanced level.
On May 5, 2020, the Long March 5B carrier rocket developed for China's manned space station project successfully flew in Wenchang, officially kicking off the "third step" mission of China's manned space project.
On December 22 of the same year, the Long March 8 carrier rocket successfully flew for the first time, increasing the carrying capacity of the Chinese carrier rocket’s sun-synchronous transfer orbit from 3 tons to 4.5 tons.
Compared with the active launch vehicle, the new generation launch vehicle not only uses non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, but also doubles its carrying capacity, which greatly improves China's ability to enter space.
With the development and improvement of the new generation of Long March series of carrier rockets, the carrier rockets currently in service will gradually withdraw from the stage of history and achieve a full replacement of new and old rockets.
Explore the universe further
During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the ever-increasing capabilities and number of launches of the Long March series of carrier rockets have enabled the Chinese to explore the universe further.
The Long March 3B carrier rocket successfully launched the Chang'e-4 probe, which completed the first soft landing on the back of the moon.
The Long March 5 Yaosi rocket launched the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, and China has taken the first step towards autonomous planetary exploration.
The Chang'e-5 probe was launched into space with the Long March-5 Yao-5 rocket, successfully achieving China's first extraterrestrial celestial body sampling return.
The Changsanjia series rockets completed all the launch missions of Beidou navigation satellites and helped the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system to be fully completed.
The Long March 2F and Long March 7 carrier rockets successively sent the Tiangong-2 laboratory, the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft, and the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft into scheduled orbits, laying a solid foundation for the construction of China's space station.
The expedition series successfully developed the upper stage and made its first flight, which greatly accelerated the speed of China's high-orbit satellite network.
In the past five years, the launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has been launched continuously at a high density, and the number of launches of the Long March 3A series rockets exceeded 100.
In addition, the development of the heavy-duty launch vehicle has been completed and a series of major key technologies have achieved breakthroughs.
At 12:37 on December 22, Beijing time, the Long March 8 carrier rocket was successfully launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, sending five satellites into the predetermined orbit with "one arrow and five stars".
Photo by Su Dong
Commercial aerospace development is advancing steadily
During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the international commercial aerospace market is booming. The rockets developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology have successively provided international commercial launch services for Laos, Belarus and other countries.
On August 17, 2019, the Jielong 1 rocket successfully flew for the first time. This type of rocket is a small solid launch vehicle specially developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology for the small satellite launch market. 150 kilograms, is one of the world’s lowest cost rockets per unit load into orbit.
In addition, the Long March 8 launch vehicle developed with market demand as the guide made its first flight.
The Long March 11 carrier rocket completed China's first commercial application launch at sea.
During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, in the face of high-density launches, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology proposed to change the design of "customized rockets" to "universal rockets". The rockets can be applied to other missions with minimal adaptation. The rocket mission adjustment cycle has been reduced from the original 18 months to 4 to 5 months.
The new generation of rockets can achieve the final assembly and launch capability of 5-8 rounds per year, and complete the batch production.
In addition, the procedure for the launch site of the normal temperature liquid rocket has been streamlined from 35 days to 15 days.
The Long March 11 rocket is capable of launching within a few hours of all weather, greatly enhancing China's ability to quickly enter space.
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