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Long March’s Family Welcomes New Rocket Skills Update (Scientific and Technological Self-Reliance)
On December 22, the first flight test of the Long March 8 carrier rocket was a complete success. As a new generation of medium-sized carrier rockets in China, the Long March 8 rocket has applied technologies such as engine thrust adjustment and recoverable design. It has the characteristics of large loading capacity and high loading efficiency. In the future, it will gradually become the main force for China’s medium and low-orbit rockets.
At 12:37 p.m. on December 22, the Long March 8 carrier rocket ignited at the Wenchang space launch site in China and successfully sent five experimental satellites into the intended orbit. This is the first mission of the new Chinese generation of Long March 8 medium-sized carrier rockets.
Xiao Yun, commander-in-chief of the long March 8 launch vehicle of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology affiliated with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said the successful first flight of the March 8 launch vehicle Long March will strongly promote the upgrade of China’s mid-size launch vehicles to meet future low and mid-altitude needs Demand for density launch missions will drive and lead the development of future low and medium orbit satellites of China.
Increase the carrying capacity of the same type of rocket from 3 tons to 4.5 tons.
With the continuous development of China’s aerospace technology, the demand for launching medium and low orbit satellites has become more and more vigorous. At present, there is a gap in the payload capacity of China’s new generation of carrier rockets, which cannot meet the launch needs of 3 to 4.5 tons in synchronous orbit with the sun. The Long March family urgently needed to bring in a new member to take on the heavy responsibilities, and he was born on the 8th of the Long March.
The Long March 8 rocket has a takeoff mass of about 356 tons, a takeoff thrust of about 480 tons, and a synchronous orbit with the sun of 700 kilometers with a payload capacity of not less than 4.5 tons.
The rocket’s ability to enter space is as great as its capacity. Xiao Yun presented that China’s current main carrier rocket capable of launching into low-medium orbits can deliver 3 tons of payload to the sun-synchronous orbit. The successful maiden flight of the Great March 8 raised this capacity to 4.5 tons, effectively filling the gap between China’s sun synchronous orbit load capacity from 3 tons to 4.5 tons, and taking into account both the low earth orbit as the geosynchronous transfer orbit launch capabilities. It is of great importance to improve China’s spectrum of carrier rockets types and improve the ability to enter space. For payloads such as satellites, it will also be an upgrade of a platform, which is of great importance to promote the construction of networks of low and medium orbit satellites.
Application of engine thrust adjustment, recoverable design and other technologies
With the development and improvement of the new generation of Long March series carrier rockets, the current in-service carrier rockets will gradually be withdrawn from the stage of history and perform the complete replacement of new and old rockets, so that the level China’s carrier rockets will once again exceed the world leading level.
Compared to the active launch vehicle, the launch of the next-generation launch vehicle is another great technological leap, not only because of the use of non-toxic and non-polluting propellants, but also its carrying capacity has been doubled, which it has vastly improved China’s ability to enter space.
It only took more than two years for the Long March 8 to demonstrate from model to first rocket flight under factory conditions, which is rare in the history of the development of a new generation of carrier rockets. “Long March 8 can be successfully developed in a relatively short period of time because the development team has fully absorbed the development results of the in-service and new generation launch vehicles from a technical point of view.” Song Zhengyu, chief designer of the March 8 Long Launch Vehicle, said there are many technologies available. This is the first application such as engine thrust adjustment technology, rocket active load shedding control technology, etc., laying the foundation for the intelligent development and development of reusable rockets.
It is worth mentioning that the Long March 8 launch vehicle adopts a recoverable design to achieve the goal of reducing rocket launch costs and shortening the launch period in the future. To achieve repeated use of rockets and reduce costs, adjusting the engine thrust is an important technology. According to experts, in this launch, the Long March 8 launch vehicle applied engine thrust tuning technology. This is China’s first launch vehicle engineering application. It has performed a relevant preliminary technical verification in advance for post reuse technology and is reusable in China. The development of the launch vehicle has laid a solid foundation.
The Long March 8 is also the first medium to large-size rocket that has not conducted a full-arrow modal test among all rockets in China, which means that the development of large-scale test equipment can be reduced to cooperate with the proof. Long March 8 innovatively adopts virtual and real modal analysis technology to lay the foundation for other large and heavy rockets in the future, which is expected to greatly shorten the development cycle, reduce development costs and improve development efficiency.
Market-oriented research and development, with the best delivery efficiency
In recent years, in the international space launch market, competition from international commercial launch vehicles has become increasingly fierce. It is anticipated that there will be strong demand for large tonnage space launch missions in orbits synchronized with the sun in the next 5 to 10 years. The Long March 8 is the first state-approved launch vehicle for the commercial market, which in turn has a low-cost mission.
According to Duan Baocheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the Long March 8 launch vehicle, the Long March 8 rocket established its development oriented to market demand at the beginning of the project. From the comprehensive consideration of capacity indicators and economic reliability, strives to achieve the development of the rocket and market potential. Double success.
“The transport efficiency of the Long March 8 rocket is among the best among domestic rockets. The increase in payload capacity and decrease in cost will inevitably produce a very high cost performance,” Duan Baocheng said. Since the beginning of the design of the Long March 8 rocket, the integration of technology and economics has been fully considered. Through project system attempts and high inheritance, production costs and support costs have been reduced to achieve effective cost control of the rocket. For example, while conducting low-cost designs for electrical and structural design, it also promotes the competitiveness of commercial rockets by conducting vertical take-off and landing research and conducting reuse.
“The successful first flight of the Long March 8 rocket is an important milestone in the development process, but this is just a new starting point,” said Wu Yitian, deputy chief designer of the Long March 8 launch vehicle. Going forward, the Long March 8 rocket will gradually become the main force for China’s low and medium orbit rockets. It can be launched in the form of an arrow with a star or several stars. It will carry out launch tasks such as the launch of low-orbit satellite Internet systems, and will be a group of follow-up satellites for China. Network engineering construction provides strong support.
Experts believe that the successful first flight of the Long March 8 rocket is not just the debut of a rocket. In the near future, the Long March 8 will also become a repeatable, intelligent, unmanned and other new rocket verification and application technology platform. .
Yu Jianbin Feng Hua Wang Weitong
