The 40th anniversary of the first flight of the gold veteran Long March 2C carrier rocket's past and present

　　□ Our reporter Lian Yingting

　　□ Newspaper correspondent Chen Yijun

　　September 9 marks the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the Long March 2C carrier rocket (hereinafter referred to as the Chang 2C rocket).

As the rocket with the longest service life in my country, the Chang Er C rocket successfully made its maiden flight at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on September 9, 1982, sending my country's first application-type returnable satellite into space.

　　Over the past 40 years, this "golden rocket" has always insisted on pioneering and innovating, built a platform for new technology exploration and verification, carried out new technology exploration and application, and promoted and applied the results to multiple models to promote the improvement and upgrading of launch technology.

　　On November 26, 1975, the Long March 2 rocket, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Rocket Academy), a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, accurately sent my country's first returnable satellite into the predetermined orbit. , marking the Long March 2 rocket from engineering development to launch application.

Since then, all types of conventional liquid launch vehicles in my country have been developed with the Long March 2 rocket as the cornerstone.

　　In order to achieve the launch of heavier satellites, the model team organized and carried out the improved design of the Long March 2 rocket.

The carrying capacity of the modified rocket in low-Earth orbit has been increased from 1,800 kg to 2,500 kg, and the reliability has been greatly improved.

After the successful first flight of the Chang Er C rocket, it will fully replace the Long March 2 rocket to perform the launch mission and achieve seamless upgrades.

　　At present, the Chang II-C rocket is about 43 meters long, and the first, second and fairing diameters are all 3.35 meters; the take-off weight is about 242.5 tons.

The 4.2-meter configuration fairing that successfully flew on August 24, 2021 has gradually become the main fairing.

　　On October 6, 1992, the Chang-2-C rocket successfully completed the launch of the returnable satellite No. 2 and the Swedish FREJA satellite with one arrow and two satellites, and China Aerospace was recognized by the world.

By the end of 1987, the seven launches of the Chang-2-C rocket were all successful, and were awarded the "National Quality Gold Award" by the China Quality Association.

　　Since its first flight in 1982, as of the end of 1998, the 17th launch of the Chang-2C rocket was a complete success, so it was awarded the "Gold Medal of High-quality Long March-2C Carrier Rocket", which is the first "Gold Medal Rocket" in my country.

　　In order to better complete the high-density launch, the Chang II-C rocket has successively applied the two-way correction of the ballistic high-altitude wind, the quasi-real-time secondary compensation before the launch, the active load shedding control, the first-level guidance control and other technologies, which significantly reduced the flight time. Aerodynamic load, which improves flight safety and launch probability.

In this year's launch mission, the model broke through the rapid separation technology of completing the separation of three serial bodies within 3 seconds, and achieved an ultra-short mission response period from the start of the mission demonstration to the completion of the launch in 4 months.

　　In recent years, on the basis of the CZ-C rocket, my country has successively developed C-C/FP, C-C/SM, C-C/SMA and C-C/YZ-1S with a liquid upper stage. Configuration rocket.

　　The Chang Er C rocket and its improved rocket are the only launch vehicles in the Long March series of launch vehicles that are capable of launching low-Earth orbit (LEO), sun synchronous orbit (SSO), geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and large elliptical orbit satellites at the same time. The methods include single-satellite launch, series-parallel double-satellite launch, parallel three-star launch, and side-mounted multi-satellite launch.

Therefore, the Chang Er C rocket and its improved rocket are the most flexible and widely used launch vehicles in China.

　　Chang Er C rocket has also undertaken a number of new technology verification work.

In 1997, the Rocket Academy successfully developed my country's first three-axis stabilized solid upper stage configuration rocket, the Chang 2C/FP, and realized the complete success of the 7th Iridium launch mission.

In 2019, the precision control technology of the launch vehicle sub-stage landing area carried out by the Chang Er C rocket passed the flight verification, breaking through a number of core technologies, solving the problem of precise control of the unpowered re-entry landing area of ​​the first sub-stage of the rocket. The scope of the debris drop area has been reduced from 1,350 square kilometers to 60 square kilometers, a reduction of 96%; the safety of the landing area of ​​the debris of the first sub-stage of the rocket has been greatly improved, and the adaptability of the rocket launch mission has been expanded.

　　As one of the main forces in my country's low-Earth orbit, the Chang-2-C rocket undertakes the launch of a large number of remote sensing application satellites, Einstein probes, Sino-French astronomy and other scientific research satellites, and also undertakes commercial constellations such as Galaxy, Space-Time Daoyu, and Siwei. satellite launch mission.

It is expected that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the frequency of more than 10 annual transmissions will be maintained.