The 400th launch is imminent, and the Long March series of rockets have a wonderful journey to space

On November 27, 2021, China carried out the 399th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, so the 400th launch of the Long March series of carrier rockets this year is just around the corner. In addition, as of November 27, China has carried out 47 carrier rocket launches this year, which not only sets a new record for China's annual launches, but is also expected to rank first in the world again after 2018 and 2019.

Although China has launched other types of launch vehicles, such as the Storm, Pioneer, Kuaizhou and Hyperbola, they are incomparable to the Long March in terms of carrying capacity, number of launches, type of models, orbital accuracy, etc. Therefore, the Long March series of rockets are the absolute main force of China's launch vehicles, a veritable "national team", and have made great contributions to the rapid development of China's aerospace industry.

A Glimpse of the Long March Series of Launch Vehicles

01

Create Brilliance

Over the past few decades, through the unremitting efforts of several generations of Chinese rocketeers, the Long March series of rockets have gone through an extraordinary technical journey from room temperature propulsion to cryogenic propulsion, from series connection to parallel connection, from low orbit to high orbit, from "one rocket one satellite" to "one rocket multiple satellites", from launching artificial earth satellites to launching manned spacecraft and space probes, and from land launch to sea launch. Now they have the ability to launch different types of payloads into low, medium and high orbits, and have reached the level of world-class rockets in terms of thrust, success rate, launch frequency, orbit insertion accuracy and adaptability.

It took 37 years for the Long March series of rockets to achieve the first 100 launches; the second 100 launches took more than 7 years; the third 100 launches took more than 4 years; and the fourth 100 launches took only more than 2 years, fully demonstrating China's speed, height, strength and wisdom.

The Long March 2E, commonly known as the "Long March 2F", is China's first serial-parallel rocket.

Since the first flight of the Long March 1 rocket on April 24, 1970, the Long March series of rockets has put into use 19 basic-stage rockets and 5 upper stages (the upper stage refers to the rocket sub-stage added to the basic-stage rocket with an independent control system and power system), successfully sending more than 600 spacecraft into space.

China's early "Long March" rockets were improved from ballistic missiles, and about 13 models were developed and launched. Later, facing the growing demand for space resource development and the increasingly competitive commercial launch market, China continued to improve its original rockets and developed 6 new-generation large, medium and small launch vehicles.

The new generation of launch vehicles are designed with reliability, safety and economy as the main principles. They use non-toxic, environmentally friendly, inexpensive, high-specific impulse liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen or liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, as well as large diameter and few stages. Through modularization, combination and serialization, they have multiplied their carrying capacity, reduced costs and increased the success rate of launches.

120 ton liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket engine

In the future, China will also develop and launch more advanced launch vehicles, including smart launch vehicles, reusable launch vehicles, new-generation manned launch vehicles and heavy-lift launch vehicles.

The new generation of manned carrier rocket is a highly reliable and safe manned rocket newly developed according to the development plan of China's manned space engineering for launching China's new generation of manned spacecraft. It consists of a booster, a core stage, a core stage, a core stage, an escape tower and a fairing. The rocket is about 90 meters long and weighs about 2,000 tons at takeoff. It can send a 25-ton payload directly into the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, or a 70-ton payload into the low-Earth orbit.

The new generation of manned rockets are designed according to the highest safety standards for manned flight. The rockets can be used for manned lunar exploration in the future, and will rapidly promote the improvement and leap of China's launch vehicle technology and ability to enter and exit space.

Model of the new generation manned launch vehicle

The Long March 9 heavy-lift rocket is currently China's largest rocket with the largest carrying capacity. The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense conducted a demonstration in 2010 and formally proposed the technical solution for the heavy-lift rocket in 2015.

The core stage has a diameter of 9.5 meters and is connected in parallel with four 5-meter diameter boosters, each of which is equipped with two 4,800-kN thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engines; the first core stage is equipped with four 4,800-kN thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engines; the second core stage is equipped with two liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines with a vacuum thrust of 2,200 kN; and the third core stage is equipped with four liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines with a vacuum thrust of 220 kN.

It can build a series of models with a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 140 tons, a Earth-Moon transfer orbit carrying capacity of 50 tons, and a Earth-Mars transfer orbit carrying capacity of 35 tons. Its mission is planned to achieve its first flight around 2028.

The comprehensive performance indicators of this heavy-lift carrier rocket have reached the advanced level of international carrier rockets. After the successful development of the heavy-lift carrier rocket, it can meet the mission requirements of major national scientific and technological activities such as domestic deep space exploration and lunar base in the future, ensuring that China's carrier rocket technology will enter the world's first-class echelon before 2030.

From left: Models of Long March 9, 5B, 7A and 6A

02

Old but strong

The Long March 2, 3 and 4 series rockets that China is still using are launch vehicles that were improved from ballistic missiles earlier. They are used to launch low-Earth orbit, high-orbit and polar-orbit spacecraft respectively.

01

Near Earth Series

On April 24, 1970, China's first carrier rocket, the Long March 1, successfully launched China's first artificial satellite. The weight of the satellite exceeded the combined weight of the first artificial satellites launched by the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan, laying the foundation for the development of the "Long March" series of rockets.

The Long March 1 is a three-stage rocket. The first and second stages are liquid rockets used by China to launch long-range strategic missiles at the time, and the third stage is a newly developed solid rocket. The rocket has a low Earth orbit carrying capacity of 300 kilograms, laying a comprehensive technical foundation for the development of China's multi-stage rocket technology, and mastering multi-stage rocket stability and attitude control technology. Due to its small carrying capacity, the Long March 1 is no longer used.

The Long March 1 rocket is preparing to launch the Dongfanghong 1 satellite

The Long March 2 series is mainly used to launch various low-Earth orbit spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It adopts two-stage or two-and-a-half-stage type (the parallel booster counts as half a stage). China has successively put into use the Long March 2, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, etc., all of which use the normal temperature propellant of UDMH/N2O4.

The Long March 2 rocket is a two-stage rocket developed based on a long-range ballistic missile prototype, with a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 2.1 tons. In 1975, it completed the launch mission of China's first recoverable satellite and has now been retired.

The Long March 2C, which is still in use, is an improved version of the Long March 2. It uses a high-thrust liquid rocket engine, has a longer arrow, and its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity has increased to 4.1 tons. Its reliability has also been greatly improved. It has been the basis for the development of many subsequent "Long March" sub-series rockets. It is mainly used to launch low-Earth orbit satellites, has a high success rate, and was awarded the "National Quality Gold Award."

The Long March 2D currently in service is based on the Long March 2 and adopts the method of increasing the propellant filling amount to increase the take-off thrust. Its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is 3.7 tons.

Long March 2D launches Jilin-1 satellite

The Long March 2E, which was successfully launched in 1990, is China's first serial-parallel rocket. Its core stage is another improved version of the Long March 2C, and four boosters are bundled on the first stage, making the low-Earth orbit carrying capacity reach 9.2 tons. The Long March 2E/ETS rocket is a solid upper stage installed on the second stage of the Long March 2E, the ETS, which was used to launch large communication satellites for Australia, Hong Kong, China and the United States, and has now been retired.

The two-and-a-half-stage Long March 2F is China's first manned carrier rocket, which was successfully launched in 1999. Its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity when launching manned spacecraft is 8.1 tons, and its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity when launching space laboratories is 8.6 tons. It has successfully launched 13 "Shenzhou" series spacecraft and 2 "Tiangong" space laboratories.

The Long March 2F rocket widely adopts redundant design, improves the grade and screening standards of components, and designs the engine to improve reliability, and adds fault detection and escape systems, making the rocket's reliability reach 98%. An escape tower similar to a lightning rod is installed on the top, which can make the safety of astronauts reach 0.99996, that is, the rocket may fail to escape 4 times in an average of 100,000 launches.

The Long March 2F with an escape tower on top launches the Shenzhou manned spacecraft

To ensure the safety of astronauts, the Long March 2F cancelled its self-destruction function. To ensure the stability of the rocket flight, gain escape time and improve the escape success rate, the rocket added a tail fin. It also adopted vertical assembly, vertical testing and vertical transportation, which greatly saved the launch preparation time.

Long March F is vertically transferred to the launch area

02

High rail series

The Long March 3, 3A, 3B and 3C developed by China are three-stage or three-and-a-half-stage rockets, mainly used to launch various medium and high orbit spacecraft at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Their common features are: they are all three-stage liquid rockets, the first and second stages use normal temperature propellants, and the third stage uses liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen cryogenic propellants, and can be started multiple times, and can directly send payloads into geosynchronous transfer orbits, but their carrying capacities are different.

Long March 3 is based on Long March 2C, with a cryogenic upper stage using liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen as propellant. It has a geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity of 1.6 tons, making China the third country in the world to master cryogenic high-energy propulsion technology and the second country to master cryogenic engine high-altitude secondary ignition technology. The rocket was successfully launched for the first time in 1984; in 1990, it successfully launched the Asia-1 satellite, achieving a breakthrough in China's rocket international commercial launch services.

In 1994, the Long March 3A rocket was successfully launched for the first time. Based on the Long March 3, it uses an improved third-stage cryogenic engine and has mastered four key technologies such as a digital small control system. It can send a 2.6-ton payload into the geosynchronous transfer orbit. It has launched artificial satellites using the Dongfanghong-3 satellite platform many times, including the Chang'e-1 lunar probe.

The Long March 3A rocket is preparing to launch the Chang'e 1 lunar probe

The Long March 3B developed and launched later is a Long March 3A with four boosters bundled on the first stage. The second stage is lengthened and 20 tons of propellant are added, which increases the geosynchronous transfer orbit to 5.5 tons. The first launch was successful in 1997 and it is currently China's main rocket for launching high-orbit spacecraft. It has successfully launched many domestic and foreign communication satellites, as well as many navigation satellites and lunar probes into space.

The Long March 3C is a Long March 3A rocket with two boosters attached to the first stage, making it China's first non-fully symmetrical rocket. Its geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity is between the Long March 3A (2.6 tons) and the Long March 3B (5.5 tons), at 3.8 tons. It fills a gap in China's high-orbit carrying capacity and truly forms a rocket carrying capacity series. It began to be used in 2008.

The Long March 3C/Yuanzheng 1 rocket that launched the BeiDou-3

03

Polar Orbit Series

China has developed and launched the Long March 4 series, which are all three-stage room-temperature carrier rockets. They are mainly used to launch various polar-orbiting satellites at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The Long March 4 was successfully launched for the first time in 1988.

The later Long March 4A has a polar-orbiting satellite carrying capacity of 1.5 tons; the Long March 4B developed on its basis has a polar-orbiting satellite carrying capacity of 1.9 tons; the Long March 4C is improved from the Long March 4B, with a polar-orbiting satellite carrying capacity of 2.8 tons, and the third-stage rocket engine has a secondary start capability.

All stages of their mission use nitrogen tetroxide and UDMH as propellants, and have launched a number of polar-orbiting remote sensing satellites, including land satellites, meteorological satellites and ocean satellites.

Long March 4B launches

03

New Arrow Style

In order to adapt to the development direction of launch vehicles, in recent years, China has begun to develop and launch a new generation of large, medium and small launch vehicles, including Long March 5, 5B, 6, 7, 7A, 8 and 11, in accordance with the goal of "non-toxic, non-polluting, low cost, high reliability, large thrust, strong adaptability and good safety" since 2015.

01

Long March 6, Long March 6A

In 2015, the first launch of China's new generation of small liquid carrier rocket Long March 6 sent 20 satellites into the predetermined orbit. It is a brand-new three-stage liquid rocket with a total length of about 29 meters, a takeoff thrust of 1188 kilonewtons, and a takeoff mass of about 103 tons. It can launch a 1-ton payload to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers. It is non-toxic and pollution-free, and has a short launch preparation time. The rocket is used to perform multiple orbital launch missions such as sun-synchronous orbit and low-Earth orbit, and supports single-satellite launch, multi-satellite launch, constellation networking and network supplement launch.

The new generation of Long March 6 small liquid rocket does not require a large launch pad for launch

The first stage of the Long March 6 has a diameter of 3.35 meters and uses a liquid oxygen/kerosene engine with a maximum thrust of 120 tons, which is used for the first time. This also laid the foundation for the use of 120-ton liquid oxygen/kerosene engines in new rockets such as the Long March 5 and 7 launched later.

The diameter of the second and third stages are both 2.25 meters, equipped with a 180 kN liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and a 6.5 kN normal temperature propellant engine respectively. It adopts the "three-level" test and launch mode, namely horizontal overall test, horizontal overall satellite-rocket docking, and horizontal overall transportation erection launch. The launch preparation cycle only takes 7 days, which can well meet the needs of low-cost and short-cycle satellite launches, and has now been put into commercial launch.

In 2021, the new Long March 6A rocket is expected to make its maiden flight. Its biggest feature is that it has four solid boosters connected in parallel on the basis of the Long March 6, enabling its 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity to reach 4 tons.

02

Long March 11

In 2015, the first launch of China's Long March 11 rocket sent four small satellites into orbit. It is a brand-new four-stage small solid-fuel carrier rocket, with a total length of about 21 meters, a total weight of about 58 tons, and a maximum diameter of 2 meters. It can launch a 500 kg payload into a 500 km high sun-synchronous orbit, and a 200 km low-Earth orbit with a carrying capacity of up to 700 kg.

As the first and only solid rocket in the "Long March" family, the Long March-11 has the advantages of being "fast, reliable, convenient and low-cost". It has achieved the leap of China's 24-hour rapid launch of carrier rockets. It is mainly used for single-star and multi-star combination launches of small and medium-sized spacecraft in sun-synchronous orbits and low-Earth orbits below 1,000 kilometers, meeting the needs of micro-satellite launches in emergency situations such as natural disasters and emergencies, and has now been put into commercial launches.

Long March 11 rocket docks with payload

In 2019, China successfully launched a satellite on a Long March 11 rocket for the first time on an offshore platform. Launching a carrier rocket at sea can not only reduce launch costs and increase carrying capacity, but also effectively solve the safety issues of the rocket flight area and the debris landing area, avoid large-scale personnel evacuation, and provide a new launch mode for China's space launch. At the same time, in the future, by building a dedicated offshore launch platform, it will provide users with global sea launch capabilities and further meet the satellite networking launch needs in low-latitude areas.

Launch of the Long March 11 rocket at sea

03

Long March 7, Long March 7A

In 2016, the new generation Long March 7 medium-sized carrier rocket was successfully launched for the first time. It adopts a two-and-a-half-stage configuration and is mainly used to launch payloads in low-Earth orbit or sun-synchronous orbit. It can send a 13.5-ton payload into a low-Earth orbit with a perigee of 200 kilometers, an apogee of 400 kilometers, and an inclination of 42 degrees, or send a 5.5-ton payload into a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

It uses the mature technology of the Long March 2F rocket and replaces it with a newly developed liquid oxygen/kerosene engine while keeping it roughly unchanged. Its advantages are: first, it improves the rocket's carrying capacity. The 120-ton liquid oxygen/kerosene engine has a 20% higher specific impulse than conventional engines, and a 60% higher thrust than the existing "Long March" engine, raising China's rocket's near-Earth orbit carrying capacity from 8.6 tons to 14 tons. Second, the propellant is green and environmentally friendly, and produces carbon dioxide and water after combustion. Third, it is cheap, with an average cost of only more than 1/10 of conventional propellants; fourth, it can be reused in the future.

The basic model is 53.1 meters long, with a core diameter of 3.35 meters for the first and second stages, a single booster diameter of 2.25 meters, a takeoff mass of about 595 tons, and a takeoff thrust of 720 tons. The first stage of the core is equipped with two double-pendulum liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a single thrust of 120 tons; the first stage of the core is connected in parallel with four boosters, each of which is equipped with a single-pendulum liquid oxygen/kerosene engine with a single thrust of 120 tons; the second stage of the core is 3.35 meters in diameter and is equipped with four double-pendulum liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a single thrust of 18 tons. The fairing has a diameter of 4.2 meters.

Long March 7 rocket takes off

Long March 7 is China's first rocket developed with fully digital means. There is not a single paper drawing in the entire development process, which greatly reduces costs, reduces product scrap rate, and shortens the development process. In the test and assembly stage, "virtual reality technology" was applied to conduct virtual assembly and virtual testing of the rocket, truly simulating the actual assembly and test environment of the rocket, foreseeing possible problems in advance, and ensuring that the rocket test and assembly are "one-time success". It also has functions such as waterproof, windproof, and salt spray proof. It can be vertically transported in the case of a force 8 gale, and its wind resistance is the highest in the current "Long March" family; it can also be launched in moderate rain.

Since the Long March 7 has a diameter of 3.35 meters, it can be launched from all four launch sites in China. Currently, it is mainly used to launch the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft.

The Long March 7A Yao 2 rocket was successfully launched in 2021. It is a new generation of medium-sized high-orbit three-stage liquid-bundled carrier rocket formed on the basis of the Long March 7 rocket and combined with the third stage of the Long March 3A series rocket. The total length of the rocket is 60.13 meters, the core first and second stages are 3.35 meters in diameter, the third stage is 3 meters in diameter, the single booster is 2.25 meters in diameter, and the rocket has a takeoff mass of about 573 tons.

The core first stage, second stage and booster are basically inherited from the Long March 7 rocket, and the third stage is basically inherited from the liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen final stage of the Long March 3A series of launch vehicles. It uses two liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines with a thrust of 8 tons each and has the ability of secondary starting. The rocket is mainly used for geosynchronous orbit satellite launch missions. The geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity is 7 tons, which can meet the launch needs of high-orbit spacecraft, fill the gap of China's high-orbit 5.5-7 tons carrying capacity, and improve China's space transportation equipment system.

04

Long March 5 and 5B

In 2016, the new generation of large carrier rocket Long March 5 was successfully launched for the first time. It adopts a two-and-a-half-stage configuration, and its biggest feature is the core stage diameter of 5 meters (the maximum diameter of other "Long March" rockets is 3.35 meters). The rocket is 56.97 meters long, with a core stage and a second stage diameter of 5 meters, a single booster diameter of 3.35 meters, a takeoff mass of 869 tons, and a takeoff thrust of 1,078 tons.

The first stage of the core is equipped with two liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines that can swing in both directions and have a thrust of 50 tons each. It is also connected in parallel with four boosters, each equipped with two liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a thrust of 120 tons, one of which is a swinging engine. The second stage of the core has a diameter of 5 meters and is equipped with two liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines with a thrust of 9 tons each. They are improved from the third stage hydrogen/oxygen engines of the Long March 3A. The engines can swing in both directions and have the ability to start again. Its fairing is 12 meters long and 5.2 meters in diameter.

The rocket has a geosynchronous transfer orbit carrying capacity of 14 tons, an Earth-Moon transfer orbit carrying capacity of 8 tons, and an Earth-Mars transfer orbit carrying capacity of 5 tons. Its comprehensive performance indicators are at the level of mainstream international launch vehicles. It has successfully launched large spacecraft such as the Chang'e-5 lunar sample return probe and the Tianwen-1 Mars probe.

The Long March 5B rocket, developed on the basis of the Long March 5, was put into use in 2020. It is a rocket without the second stage of the Long March 5 and adopts a one-and-a-half-stage configuration. Its low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is 25 tons, and it is mainly used to launch space station modules. It has now sent the "Tianhe" core module of China's "Tiangong" space station and a new generation of manned spacecraft test ship into space. Its fairing is currently the largest in China, tailor-made for carrying space station modules, with a diameter of 5.2 meters and a length of 20.5 meters, which is 8 meters longer than the fairing of the Long March 5.

The Long March 5 rocket is ready to launch

05

Long March 8

The Long March 8, which was successfully launched for the first time in 2020, is a new generation of medium-sized two-and-a-half-stage launch vehicle. The total length of the rocket is 50.3 meters, and the rocket has a takeoff mass of about 356 tons. It is mainly used to launch payloads in sun-synchronous orbits. The diameter of the first stage of the core is 3.35 meters, the diameter of the second stage is 3 meters, and the diameter of a single booster is 2.25 meters. It is a two-stage rocket consisting of the first stage of the Long March 7 and the third stage of the Long March 3A, that is, the first stage of the core is equipped with two 120-ton liquid oxygen/kerosene engines; the second stage is equipped with two 8-ton liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines, with secondary start capability. The first stage of the core is connected in parallel with two boosters, each equipped with a 120-ton liquid oxygen/kerosene engine.

The rocket can be launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center and the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It can send a 5-ton payload into a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, filling the gap in China's 3-4.5-ton sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity. It also has the launch capabilities for low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous transfer orbit. It has the characteristics of moderate launch cost, shorter launch cycle, and adaptability to multiple space launch site conditions. It has strong international competitiveness and has promising prospects in the commercial satellite launch market.

04

Upper stage

In 2015, China's first "space shuttle" - the upper stage of the Yuanzheng-1 rocket made its maiden flight. The upper stage is a small rocket that can further send a spacecraft from a quasi-Earth orbit or Earth orbit into a predetermined working orbit or predetermined space position. It can be started multiple times, has a long working time, and can successively send different "passengers" to different final destinations, greatly enhancing the mission adaptability of China's launch vehicles.

In 2015, China's first independently developed four-and-a-half-stage rocket, the Long March 3C/Yuanzheng 1, made its maiden flight and launched the Beidou navigation satellite. It was a four-and-a-half-stage rocket with one stage added to the original three-and-a-half-stage Long March 3C rocket. In the past, three-and-a-half-stage rockets could only send satellites to the geosynchronous transfer orbit, that is, the launch orbit was elliptical, and the satellite needed to change its orbit to a circular orbit.

The improved four-and-a-half-stage rocket can directly send satellites to a more distant target orbit, and the satellite no longer needs to change orbit, which can greatly save fuel and even eliminate the apogee engine on the satellite. The general three-and-a-half-stage rocket can only fly for about 0.5 hours, while the four-and-a-half-stage rocket equipped with the upper stage can fly for about 6 hours and can fly to tens of thousands of kilometers of outer space.

China's multi-satellite launch upper stage model

China's Long March 7 made its maiden flight in 2015. It is equipped with the Yuanzheng-1A upper stage. The upper stage's on-orbit flight time has been extended from 6.5 hours of Yuanzheng-1 to 48 hours, the main engine can be started from 2 times to 20 times, and the number of separations has also increased from 1 time to 7 times. Therefore, it can take more "passengers" to different locations, the ability to change orbits has been greatly enhanced, and the service functions of the shuttle have been expanded. Through multiple ignitions, it can adapt to more complex flight routes.

The Long March 5 made its maiden flight in 2016. It is equipped with the Yuanzheng II upper stage. Compared with the Yuanzheng I, the Yuanzheng II upper stage has stricter requirements on the thrust stability of the engine and the thrust synchronization of the two engines, and the thermal and electromagnetic environments are more complex.

Expedition 1 upper stage model

In the above-mentioned "Expedition" upper stage family, the Expedition 1 upper stage is the basic model, mainly for direct orbital missions in medium and high orbits, with only two start-up capabilities, and is called the "space shuttle". The Expedition 1A upper stage has achieved multiple starts and long-term orbital time, and can complete multi-satellite deployment in different orbits, and is called the "upgraded space shuttle". The Expedition 2 upper stage has two engines and a larger carrying capacity, and performs direct orbital missions for multiple satellites in high orbits, and is called the "enhanced space shuttle".

In 2018, the Long March 2C rocket and the Yuanzheng 1S upper stage worked together to successfully send two satellites of the Remote Sensing 32-01 Group into the predetermined orbit. The upper stage is a product specially developed to meet the needs of medium and low orbits and short-term launches. It is mainly combined with a rocket with a diameter of 3.35 meters to complete short-term flight launch missions. It has a short mission time and ignites and accelerates immediately after separation from the basic stage. The entire flight mission is basically within 1 hour.

China has also developed a more advanced Yuan Zheng III upper stage, which can further improve the adaptability of the upper stage missions.

Expedition 3 upper stage model

05

Conclusion

It is reported that around 2025, China's reusable suborbital carrier will be successfully developed, making suborbital space tourism a reality. At the same time, the air-launched carrier rocket will increase its rapid launch capability to the hourly level. In 2028, a two-stage fully reusable carrier powered by a rocket engine will be successfully developed. Around 2035, the carrier rocket will be fully reusable, and the next generation of carrier rockets featuring intelligence and advanced power will make their first flight. Around 2040, the next generation of carrier rockets will be put into use, a combined-power two-stage reusable carrier will be successfully developed, and a major breakthrough will be made in nuclear-powered space shuttles.

China's development strategy for reusable launch vehicles

Pattern Editor | Morgan

Author: Pang Zhihao