400 times! Talking about the Long March and recalling the past, the blazing red flames towards aerospace

At 8:11 a.m. on December 10, the Long March 4B carrier rocket carried the Practice 6 satellite group 05 and launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The satellite then successfully entered the planned orbit. At this moment, the number of launches of China's Long March series of carrier rockets officially reached 400.

The Long March rocket is a series of launch vehicles independently developed by my country and is the mainstay of China's space industry. Its name comes from Chairman Mao's seven-character regulated verse "The Long March", which implies that my country's rocket industry will overcome any difficulties and obstacles and reach the other side of victory just like the Long March of the Red Army.

"Seven-Character Verse: Long March"

The Red Army is not afraid of the difficulties of the long march.

Thousands of mountains and rivers are just a matter of course.

The Five Ridges are winding and the waves are rolling.

The Wumeng Mountains are majestic and covered with mud.

The water of Jinsha hits the cliffs and warms the sky.

The iron chains of Dadu Bridge are cold.

I am even more delighted by the thousands of miles of snow on Minshan Mountain.

The three armies were all happy after passing by.

Today, the Long March series of rockets achieved 400 launches. Let us review the story of the Long March rocket family together!

The Birth of Long March 1

The first Long March series carrier rocket was called Long March 1, which successfully launched my country's first artificial satellite, Dongfanghong 1, into space. At the beginning of the rocket design, experts determined that the rocket should be based on medium- and long-range missiles, adding a third solid rocket to the two-stage liquid rocket to form a three-stage rocket. This method of developing rockets based on missiles is not uncommon. Even the carrier rocket that launched the world's first artificial satellite was modified from an intercontinental missile.

The Long March 1 carrier rocket successfully launched the Dongfanghong 1 satellite

On January 30, 1970, the flight test of my country's first medium- and long-range missile was a complete success, laying a solid foundation for the modification of the Long March 1 carrier rocket. On February 5, 1970, the Long March 1 joint training rocket was completed. The National Defense Science and Technology Commission decided not to conduct a carrier rocket launch test and directly launch a satellite. On March 26, the Long March 1 carrier rocket was assembled. Premier Zhou Enlai warned everyone: Never think that the work has been done, you must do the work in detail, anticipate failures, and discuss various possible situations. He also highly praised the workers for their hard-working hands and superb skills and their contributions to the country.

On April 24, 1970, the Long March 1 carrier rocket was successfully launched at the Jiuquan Test Base, and China's first artificial satellite entered space, marking the beginning of my country's space activities.

The indomitable Long March 2

The Long March 2 carrier rocket used to launch recoverable satellites was also modified from missiles. In the early stages of developing the Dongfeng 5 intercontinental missile, my country planned to improve it into a carrier rocket to launch heavy satellites in low-Earth orbit. On September 13, 1972, Premier Zhou Enlai visited the First Institute of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building and visited the Long March 2 carrier rocket under development. He said: "Our cutting-edge products are now in the test stage, and we must accelerate the end of this stage. The central government hopes to speed up the development of the Long March 2 carrier rocket to ensure that the recoverable satellite is sent to the sky as soon as possible." Despite the difficulties, experts and scientific researchers overcame them and solved a series of key technical problems in the development process, including the development of high-thrust rocket engines, the control force provided by swing engines, and the self-generated pressurization of propellant tanks.

Recoverable satellite

On November 5, 1974, the Long March II carrier rocket was launched. However, 20 seconds after takeoff, the rocket self-destructed due to a large deviation in the pitch angle. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the entire development team. After analysis and investigation, it was found that the cause of the launch failure was a broken wire in the rocket control system. Ye Jianying, then Vice Chairman of the Military Commission, encouraged everyone, saying: "Failure is the mother of success. Don't be discouraged, but continue to struggle and make persistent efforts to achieve your goal."

In 1975, Zhang Aiping presided over the work of the National Defense Science and Technology Commission. He proposed to vigorously rectify and restore the normal order of scientific research and production to ensure that the Long March 2 carrier rocket can be "meticulously maintained" and "fly into the sky". The Seventh Ministry of Machine Building carried out scientific research and production rectification and comprehensively reviewed the quality of the second Long March 2 carrier rocket. Zhang Aiping asked everyone in the rocket assembly workshop to do the work more carefully and not to rush for success. All problems that can be found on the ground must be found, and all problems that can be solved must be solved. Go to the sky without problems and achieve success at one time. On October 12, the second Long March 2 carrier rocket was carefully tested and inspected and transported from Beijing to the Jiuquan test base. On November 26, 1975, the Long March 2 carrier rocket was launched again, flying according to the scheduled program, sending a recoverable satellite into the scheduled orbit, and the launch was a complete success.

Later, the Long March 2C was developed after improvements based on the Long March 2. The Long March 2C set a record of continuous successful launches and won the title of "Gold Medal Rocket", laying a good foundation for the serial development of launch vehicles.

Long March 2C carrier rocket

(Source: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)

In this way, after more than half a century of development, China's Long March series of launch vehicles have experienced a technological leap from room-temperature propellant to cryogenic propellant, from single-stage start-up to multiple start-ups, from series connection to parallel connection, from a single satellite per rocket to multiple satellites per rocket, and from carrying cargo to carrying people. It has gradually developed into a large family consisting of small, medium, large and heavy models, with the ability to fully enter space and conduct interstellar flights.

Long March series launch vehicle models

(Source: China Aerospace News)

The rocket speed of the Long March family

Today marks the 400th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets. Let us review these four “hundred times”:

The first “hundred times”: 37 years

April 24, 1970 - June 1, 2007

On April 24, 1970, the Long March 1 carrier rocket made its first flight and successfully launched the Dongfanghong 1 satellite

On June 1, 2007, the Long March 3A carrier rocket launched the Xinnuo 3 satellite

The second “hundred times”: 7 and a half years

December 7, 2014

Long March 4B carrier rocket successfully launches China-Pakistan resource satellite

The third “hundred times”: took more than 4 years

March 10, 2019

Long March 3B carrier rocket successfully launched ChinaSat 6C satellite

The fourth “hundred times”: 2 years and 9 months

December 10, 2021

The Long March 4B carrier rocket successfully launched the Shijian-6 satellite

In the past 51 years, the Long March series of launch vehicles have carried out 92.1% of my country's space launch missions and have sent more than 700 spacecraft into space. The launch success rate is as high as 96.25%, ranking first in the world.

At present, the new generation of Long March series launch vehicles, such as Long March 5B, Long March 7A, and Long March 8, are continuously expanding the "Long March family", providing more possibilities for China's space exploration. In the future, with the continuous development of the new generation of Long March series launch vehicles, the old and new rockets will be fully replaced, and breakthroughs in rocket reuse, landing area control, unattended launch, and multi-satellite deployment will enable my country's launch vehicle technology to achieve a new leap forward.

Source: The Historical Mission of China's Spaceflight (published by China Aerospace Publishing House), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's official WeChat public account

Editor/Yang Sishuang

Review/Yang Jie

Producer/Cao Xiaoyong

Source: China Aerospace Science