(Observation of the two sessions) Rocket "general mobilization": What are the highlights of China's space launch in 2021?

  China News Service, Beijing, March 7th. Title: Rocket "General Mobilization": What are the highlights of China's space launch in 2021?

  Author Guo Chaokai

  "Beidou" guides the way, "Chang'e" lunar exploration, "heavenly" fire detection... In recent years, China has made a number of major scientific and technological achievements in the fields of lunar exploration and manned spaceflight.

Entering 2021, China Aerospace will continue its "super mode".

This year, new and old rockets such as Long March 5B, Long March 2F, and Long March 11 will jointly "play" and stage a rocket "general mobilization."

The reporter interviewed members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the aerospace sector and sorted out the three major highlights of China's space launch this year.

The picture shows the trajectory left by the Long March 4 C rocket.

Photo by Wang Jiangbo

  Aspect 1: The number of launches is expected to break 40 times for the first time

  In recent years, China Aerospace has entered a stage of high-density launches, with the number of launches per year stable at more than 30.

Among them, 2018 and 2019 respectively ranked first in the number of launches of all countries in the world with 39 launches and 34 launches for two consecutive years; in 2020, it ranked second with 39 launches, second only to the United States.

  Li Hong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, pointed out that in 2021, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is expected to exceed 40 launches for the first time and reach a new high.

Among them, the Long March series of carrier rockets will perform aerospace tasks such as the manned space station project and the launch of multiple civil space infrastructure business satellites.

  Jiang Jie, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a carrier rocket expert of the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the First Academy), said that during the launch mission in 2021, the rocket developed by the First Academy is expected to be launched more than 30 times, accounting for approximately the entire year. 75% of launches.

The Changsanjia series of rockets are expected to perform more than 10 launch missions, accounting for nearly a quarter of the number of launches throughout the year. This series of rockets will still be the main force for high-density launches in 2021.

  According to reports, the more than 10 missions of the Changsanjia series rockets have covered various types of satellite launches such as communications and remote sensing.

"Since 2018, the number of launches of the Changsanjia series rockets has exceeded 10 times per year. This year's missions are relatively concentrated. In the second half of the year, it is expected to launch once every half month on average." Jiang Jie said.

The picture shows the vertical transfer of the Long March 5 Yaowu rocket.

Photo by Luo Yunfei

  Aspect 2: Multi-type rockets jointly build a space station

  Among the more than 40 launches this year, the most noticeable is the space station construction mission jointly launched by multiple Long March series rockets. This is the first time in China's space history that multiple Long March rockets perform the same mission.

  Specifically, the Long March 5 B rocket will launch the core module of the space station, the Long March 7 rocket will launch the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, and the Long March 2 F rocket will send astronauts into the space station by launching the Shenzhou manned spacecraft.

According to China's space station construction plan, the Type 3 rocket will complete 11 missions this year and next, launching the Tianhe core module, Wentian experimental module, and Mengtian experimental module successively to carry out the on-orbit assembly and construction of the basic configuration of the space station.

During the period, China also plans to launch 4 Shenzhou manned spacecraft and 4 Tianzhou cargo spacecraft for astronaut crew rotation and cargo replenishment.

  From 2021 to 2023, the Long March II F rocket is expected to complete 7 launch missions.

Jiang Jie revealed that in order to ensure the safety of the astronauts, the Long March 2 F rocket will be on emergency duty and can perform emergency rescue missions to the space station as soon as possible.

The developers have made adaptive improvements to the escape system of this type of rocket, and the reliability of the rocket's flight has also been increased from the original 0.97 to 0.98.

  Aspect 3: The new and old rockets "play" together

  As much as the rocket's carrying capacity is, the aerospace stage will be as big as possible.

During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the Long March 5, Long March 7, and Long March 8 new-generation carrier rockets successfully flew for the first time, and successively assumed major aerospace engineering tasks, providing strong support for the building of a space power.

The data picture shows the Long March 8 carrier rocket launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China.

Photo by Luo Yunfei

  2021 is the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan". This year, the new and old rockets are still quite interesting.

The carrying capacity of the new configuration of the Long March II C rocket, known as the "gold medal rocket", will be doubled.

Li Hong said that with the upper stage of the Expedition 1S, the 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity of the Long March 2C rocket will increase from 1.2 tons to about 2 tons.

  The Long March 11 rocket will set off again to achieve normalization of maritime launches.

Li Hong revealed that this year's Long March 11 rocket plans to perform 4-5 launch missions, including 1 land launch and 3 to 4 sea launches.

In addition, the Long March 11A rocket will be put into development, and it is planned to complete the development and put it on the market within one and a half to two years.

  In addition to the Long March series of rockets, good news has also come from the commercial rockets developed by the First Academy.

The commercial solid carrier rocket "Jielong One" and the Yao-2 rocket, developed for the needs of the launch of micro-satellites, is ready, and it is expected to carry out a commercial launch mission in July this year.

"Jielong 3, which has the largest arrow body diameter and the most powerful carrying capacity in the Jielong series, was completed in December 2020. It is expected to use the sea thermal launch method to perform the first launch test mission in the first half of 2022." Li Hong said .

  Facing the future, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China will continue to promote the development of a new generation of manned launch vehicles and heavy launch vehicles, breaking through the size of the rocket body and engine thrust of existing rockets, so as to support subsequent deep-space exploration at greater distances.

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