China's Long March Rocket celebrates its 400th launch: "Grow up" with "rocket speed"

　　China News Service, Beijing, December 10th. Title: China's Long March rocket welcomes its 400th launch: "Growing upwards" at the "speed of a rocket"

　　Author Ma Shuaisha Wang Weitong Liu Yan

　　On December 10, the Long March 4B carrier rocket successfully sent the Shihshi-6 Group 05 satellites into space.

That day was the day before the 110th anniversary of the birth of Qian Xuesen, the founder of China's aerospace industry. At the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center where he commanded the first launch, the 400th launch of China's Long March series of carrier rockets ushered in.

Realize the fourth "100 times" in only 33 months

　　It is understood that since the "first flight" of the Long March 1 carrier rocket in 1970, the Long March rocket has carried out 92.1% of China's space launch missions in 51 years, sending more than 700 spacecraft into space, with a launch success rate of 96.25%.

Among the 400 launches, the first three "100" took 37 years, 7 and a half years, and more than 4 years, respectively, while the latest "100" took only 33 months from March 10, 2019 to the present.

　　The data shows that during the new 100 launches, the Long March series of carrier rockets continued to launch at high density. The Long March 3A series rockets developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation First Academy maintained an average annual firing frequency of more than 10 times. The Long March 5 series of carrier rockets , The Long March VII series of carrier rockets represent the new generation of carrier rockets, which have launched 25 times; the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has carried out a total of 45 launch missions (Long March 2D 13 times, Long March 4B series 26 times, Long March 6 No. 6 times), and participated in 5 Long March No. 5 missions (CZ-5 rocket 3350 booster).

　　In the opinion of Long Lehao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the four hundred launches of the Long March rocket can be summarized as 100 launches from scratch, 200 times higher and farther, 300 times reborn, and 400 times for the Great Power.

The launch vehicle, as a vehicle into space, is the prerequisite and basis for all space activities, and it also determines the height and size of China's space exploration arena.

In recent years, the related technologies of the Long March series of rockets have advanced by leaps and bounds, and have reached world-class levels in terms of reliability, success rate, and orbit accuracy.

At 8:11 on December 10, China used the Long March 4 Yiyao 47 carrier rocket at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to successfully put the Shihshi-6 Group 05 satellites into the intended orbit.

The number of flights of China's Long March series of carrier rockets was officially refreshed to "400".

Photo by Wang Jiangbo

"Heavy Weapon of the Country" 400 times

　　During the fourth 100th launch, the Long March series of carrier rockets averaged 37 launches per year, breaking China's aerospace record.

China's first space station core module, the Chang'e-5 lunar probe, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, and the Beidou-3 navigation satellite, were all sent into space by Long March rockets. .

　　The Long March 3A series rocket maintains an average annual high-density firing frequency of more than 10 times, completes all Beidou navigation satellite launch tasks, and helps the Beidou global satellite navigation system to be fully completed.

　　The Long March 5 Yaosi rocket sent the "Tianwen 1" Mars probe directly into the ground fire transfer orbit. This is the first practical flight of the Long March 5, and it "flies to fame" to help China formally enter the "planetary exploration." era.

　　The Long March 5 Yaowu rocket successfully launched the "Chang'e-5" lunar probe, which was the first to realize the return of samples from China's extraterrestrial celestial bodies, adding a new footnote to the Chinese nation's dream of exploring the moon.

　　The manned space project "Three Arrows" Long March 5B, Long March 7 and Long March 2F carrier rockets have appeared one after another to build "Heavenly Peace", transport "Heaven Boat", and send "Shenzhou", laying a foundation for the construction of China's space station Solid foundation.

　　The maritime launch of the Long March 11 solid carrier rocket is becoming more and more mature, and the maritime launch of Chinese rockets will gradually become normal.

　　It is reported that the 11 basic Long March rockets currently in service are capable of launching low, medium and high earth orbits and different types of spacecraft, and can support unmanned deep space exploration.

New members of the "Long March Family" continue to emerge

　　During the fourth 100th launch, not only new members such as Chang 5B, Chang 7A, and Chang 8 emerged, the "Long March family" continued to grow, and a series of major key technologies such as heavy launch vehicles and new generation manned launch vehicles were also obtained. breakthrough.

　　On May 5, 2020, the Long March 5B carrier rocket made its first flight. This is a new type of carrier rocket specially developed for the construction of manned space engineering space stations. Its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity reaches 25 tons, which is China’s current A new-generation launch vehicle with the largest carrying capacity in low-Earth orbit.

　　On December 22, 2020, the Long March 8 carrier rocket completed its first flight mission, increasing the carrying capacity of the Chinese carrier rocket’s sun-synchronous transfer orbit from 3 tons to 4.5 tons.

It is understood that the Long March 8 carrier rocket has begun to study its reusability, and it is estimated that the number of launches will reach 20 times a year, which strongly supports China's low- and medium-orbit orbit launch mission.

　　On March 12, 2021, the Long March 7A carrier rocket was successfully launched. This type of rocket is a three-stage rocket formed on the basis of the Long March 7 rocket and combined with the three sub-stages of the Long March A series rockets. It is a new generation of medium-sized carrier rockets. The main force configuration, its geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity is no less than 7 tons, and it has the ability to launch high orbits such as zero-inclination orbits and moon-oriented orbits.

　　The new generation of launch vehicles not only use non-toxic and non-polluting propellants, but their carrying capacity has also doubled, greatly increasing China's ability to enter space.

　　In addition, according to relevant experts from the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, currently, a new generation of manned launch vehicles and heavy launch vehicles are being developed as planned, which will vigorously promote the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project, asteroid exploration, Jupiter exploration, manned lunar exploration, Major aerospace projects such as Mars sampling were carried out for the first time.

It is understood that the new generation of manned rockets can send 25 tons of payload directly into lunar orbit, or 70 tons of payload into low earth orbit.

　　In the future, with the continuous development of the new generation of Long March series of carrier rockets, the new and old rockets will be fully alternated. The technological breakthroughs in rocket reuse, landing control, unmanned launch, and multi-satellite deployment will make China's carrier rocket technology level. Achieve a new leap again.

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