Long Eight First Flight: Revealing the New Members of "Long March Series"
On December 22, China’s self-developed new medium-sized carrier rocket Long March 8 successfully made its first flight at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan, sending five payloads into the sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 512 kilometers.
As a new member of the "Long March series", the Long March 8 launch vehicle is developed in accordance with the idea of modularization, serialization, and combination. It has fully absorbed the development results of in-service and new-generation launch vehicles, and has good inheritance, economy, The advanced nature and adaptability can further improve the type spectrum of the new generation of launch vehicles and meet the needs of future high-density launch missions in low and medium orbits.
"Green Arrow" is non-toxic and non-polluting
The Long March 8 launch vehicle launched this time is a new medium-sized launch vehicle developed based on a new generation of low-temperature green environmentally friendly liquid propellant engine and modular rocket structure.
Compared with the previous "Long March series" rockets, the Long March 8 carrier rocket uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants, and produces water after combustion, which truly achieves non-toxic, pollution-free and zero emissions.
As an environmental protection "green arrow", the combination of liquid oxygen kerosene module and liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen module replaces conventional toxic propellants. The thrust generated by fuel combustion is huge, which effectively ensures that the launch process is more environmentally friendly and efficient.
Accelerating the process of detoxification of carrier rockets demonstrates China's aerospace social responsibility, further enhances the mission adaptability and rapid space access capabilities of my country's carrier rockets, and accelerates the building of my country's space power.
Adapt to sun-synchronous orbit
With the rapid development of the peaceful use of space by mankind, the demand for launching low- and medium-orbit satellites is growing.
At present, the carrying capacity of my country's new generation of carrier rockets is still blank, which cannot meet the launch requirements of 3-4.5 tons sun-synchronous orbit.
It is especially urgent to build a new generation of medium-sized carrier rockets to fill the gap in the carrying capacity of sun-synchronous orbits by using the common technologies and products of the rockets in service.
In 2015, as a new sun-synchronous orbital rocket, the Long March 8 launch vehicle entered the demonstration stage.
It is understood that the Long March 8 carrier rocket has a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity of 4.5 tons, which can effectively fill the gap, while taking into account the launch capabilities of low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous transfer orbits, and further improve the type spectrum of my country's carrier rockets to meet the requirements of space follow Launch mission requirements.
In the future, the Long March 8 carrier rocket will become the main rocket in my country's medium and low orbit satellite launch market, providing strong support for my country's follow-up satellite networking projects and assisting the construction of aerospace projects.
Targeting the commercial aerospace market
In recent years, in the international space launch market, international commercial launch vehicles have become increasingly competitive.
The Long March 8 is my country’s first state-approved launch vehicle for the commercial market.
During the research and development process, Long March 8 carried out low-cost designs in electrical and structural aspects, and carried out vertical take-off and landing research to achieve reusability to reduce costs and help China occupy an important position in the commercial space launch market.
It is worth mentioning that the Long March 8 adopts a recyclable design.
Taking the recovery of core stage and solid booster as an example, the cost of rocket launch can be greatly reduced, and the launch period can also be shortened.
"We have built Long March 8 into a launch vehicle with excellent cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and high safety." said Wu Yitian, deputy chief designer of the Long March 8 launch vehicle. The role of the fresh force and the main force to compete in the market."
Dong Jiaying