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The 2001 Winter Issue of Aerospace China

Achievements and Prospects of China's Launch Vehicles

By Long Luohao

In the mid 1960s the Chinese Government decided to design, produce and launch China's first artificial satellite to realize Chairman Mao's call issued in May, 1958 that "we too should produce man-made satellites? China's one of the first kind of modern launch vehicles was designed and developed based on the long- and medium-range ground-to-ground missiles newly developed at that time with the third solid propellant stage. The rocket launcher (LM-1) successfully launched China's first man-made satellite in April 1970. The Long March launch vehicle family, including the members from the LM-1 to LM-4, had begun to be formed gradually since the mid 1980s according to its development law. The paper describes the main achievements and development plan for the future of China's space industry.

MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS

China's Long March launch vehicles have been developed by China itself. The development of the launch vehicles has experienced several phases from the research of theory to engineering development, from small to large. Now we have obtained great achievements and international position.

1. A series of the Long March launch vehicles have been formed which can meet the various demands for the launch of application satellites.

Now we have successfully developed and launched 12 kinds of the LM launch vehicles. The development of two more kinds of the vehicles has been completed and their flight test is to be made soon. Among the launch vehicles 6 (the LM-1, LM-2, LM-2C, LM-2D, LM-2E and LM-2F) are used for the launch of LEO payloads, 4 (the LM-1D, LM-2C/SD, LM-4A and LM-4B) for the launch of payloads into middle earth orbit like SSO and other 4 (the LM-3, LM-3A, LM-3B and LM-3C) for high earth orbit (including GTO) launch. Payloads capability to the three kinds of orbits are as follows: 0.2?.8 tons for LEO, 0.4?.8 for SSO and 1.5?.1 for GTO. The LM launch vehicle family can meet the requirements for the launch of various payloads into LEO, SSO and GTO. The system parameters of LM launch vehicles are listed in table 1.

2. By the end of 2000, 64 launches had been performed to send 72 spacecraft into space orbit with a success rate of 89.1%.

3. China had broken the space launch monopoly of European countries and the United States, and entered international commercial satellite launch service market. China has carried out 22 commercial satellite launches and 5 piggyback launch services for foreign users, and sent 3 piggyback experiments into space orbit and successfully recovered them.

4. The LM launch vehicle family has high technology content and system technology has approached and reached the advanced world level.

From the 14 kinds of the LM launch vehicles we can see the following characteristics:

1) The LM launch vehicle family has used series and parallel structures. The LM-1, LM-2, LM-3 and LM-4 have used series structures and LM-2E, LM-2F, LM-3B and LM-3C have used parallel structures.

2) The LM launch vehicles use both liquid and solid propellants. The former includes storable normal temperature propellants (which the LM-2 and LM-4 use) and volatile cryogenic propellants with high energy (the LM-3 series uses).

3) Some of their upper stages start one time (the LM-1, LM-2 and LM-4) and some start two times (the LM-3 series).

4) The LM launch vehicle family can launch a single satellite on one rocket and multiple satellites on one rocket. For example, the LM-2C, LM-2C/SD and LM-3A have the record of launching two satellites on one rocket, the LM-4A has the record of launching three satellites on one rocket and, the LM-2E and LM-3B can also launch multiple satellites on one rocket.

5) Some of the launch vehicles (like the LM-3A, LM-3B and LM-3C) have the double deflection interconnection decoupling control for three-channel big attitude angle movement.

6) Some of launch vehicles (like LM-2, LM-3 and LM-4) use the inertial platform guidance system, some (like LM-1) use the strapdown inertial guidance system and some (like LM-2/SD and LM-F) use the both guidance systems.

And the insertion accuracy, payload factors, payload capability and adaptability of the LM launch vehicle family have reached the advanced world level.

5. The LM launch vehicle family has a good economic efficiency. For example, for the GTO launch the cost of the LM-3B is about $140,000 /kg and for the near SSO launch the cost of LM2-C/SD is about $160,000 /kg. The prices are competitive in the international market.

6. The LM-1 successfully launched China's first artificial satellite, which fulfilled the great space plan to "develop nuclear bombs, missiles and satellites". China successfully launched Shenzhou-1 experimental spaceship on a LM-2F launch vehicle, which laid solid foundation for realizing the strategic target for manned space flight.

7. The development of the launch vehicles has promoted the innovation of science and technology, and the improvement of the scientific and technological level, which stipulated the development of other related industries. According to statistics 80% of more than 1100 kinds of new materials manufactured since the founding of the People's Republic of China have been particularly developed for space technology and 70% of funds for satellites and launch vehicles have been used into the scientific and technological development and basic industries.

DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

1. The Reduction of the Types of China's Existing Launch Vehicles and Improvement of Their Reliability

Although the LM launch vehicle family has already obtained attracting worldwide attention, it still has the following deficiencies:

(1) Types are too many and should be reduced.

(2) Reliability is not high enough. The success rate of the LM launch vehicle family stands 7th in the 10 types of main launch vehicles in the world and in a middle or lower position. The number of flights of the LM launch vehicle family is less too. Therefore, we need to further enhance the reliability design including redundancy technology to improve the reliability.

(3) Launch preparation period is too long. The launch preparation period of the existing LM launch vehicles in the launch center is 40?0 days and the launch preparation period of internationally commercial launch is 15?0 days. Launch preparation period may be reduced to about 24 days.

(4) System adaptability of the launch vehicles without high payload capability is not high enough. It is necessary and feasible to improve the adaptability, including the further optimistic design and structure weight reduction, and to increase LEO payload capability to 8.2 tons and GTO payload capability to 5.5 tons.

We can also expand the application range of the existing LM launch vehicles. For example, the LM-3B can send 1.5 ton and 3.0 ton payloads into moon orbit respectively after the improvement of its adaptation.

2. The Development of a New Generation of Launch Vehicles

China's international position in the field of the launch vehicle is challenged. During the last decade, the western developed countries had taken outer space as the increasing source to strengthen their comprehensive national strength and the contention for space priority as their major task in the field of space technology to ensure their advanced space position. Although they have powerful launch vehicles, they continuously increase the funds for the development of new launch vehicles. By 2010 they will have put new launch vehicles into the international market. For example, the Europe plans to launch the modified Ariane-5 with a diameter of 5.4 meters and GTO payload capability of 11 tons in 2005. Japan plans to launch the H-2A with GTO payload capability of 9.5 tons and diameter of 4 meters in 2004. The United States plans to launch the Delta 4 with payload capability of 4.2?3.2 tons and diameter of 5 meters in 2001 (please see table 4). These launch vehicles are characterized by the long diameter, high payload capability, less stages, high reliability, nonpolluting and easy operation. We should develop the next new generation series launch vehicles as soon as possible to catch up with other advanced spacefaring countries.

The principles for the development of the new generation of launch vehicles should be as follows:

(1) To develop a new generation of launch vehicles we should aim at the advanced world level, follow the leaping over development road and to try our best to narrow the gap with the advanced spacefaring nations.

(2) The new generation launch vehicles should meet the needs of launching large satellites and space stations with different functions.

(3) During the development of a new generation of launch vehicles we should continuously follow the self-reliance road and occupy the advanced position in the world's space hi-tech field.

(4) We should realize the generalization, serialization and modularization of the design to develop a new generation of launch vehicles with high reliability, low costs, nonpolluting and easy operation.

The technological way to develop a new generation of launch vehicles is as follows: one emphasis, the development of two propulsion systems and three modules. One emphasis is to develop the heavy launch vehicle with a diameter of 5 meters. Two systems are two new propulsion systems: one uses the 500kN hydrogen and oxygen propellant engine and another uses the 1200kN liquid oxygen/kerosene engine. The diameters of the three basic modules are 5m, 3.35m and 2.25m respectively.

The new generation launch vehicle has the following characteristics:

(1) Its LEO payload capability ranges from 1.2 to 25 tons and GTO payload capability from 1.8 to 14 tons. It will meet demands of the world's commercial launch market for the launch vehicle in the next 30 years or longer.

(2) It can fully use technologies of the existing LM launch vehicles.

(3) It will use nontoxic and nonpolluting propellants.

(4) In the design of the system and its subsystems we should carry out the principle of low cost, high reliability and generalization, serialization and modularization.

Through the modularization it can meet the requirements of deferent payloads for the launch.

The main specifications of the basic type of the next generation launch vehicle are listed in table 5 and main specifications of derived ones are listed in table 6 and table7.

The development of the next generation launch vehicle will take about 6 years.

Additionally the necessary equipment of the next launch vehicle is the construction of the launch center, which is an important project. China has three space launch centers which can not meet the needs because of their location. Therefore, I suggest China should build a new space launch center in Hainan province. The potential launch center would face the ocean where the rocket impact point would be conveniently selected. And the safety problem in the flight would be completely solved. It would benefit international exchange, cooperation and nation's commercial launch service.

3. Research and Development of the Reusable Launch Vehicle

To reduce development cost, improve reliability of launch vehicles and promote launch vehicle technology advancement, China should actively carry out the research and development of the reusable launch vehicle and begin its engineering development as soon as possible. According to China's conditions we may begin to develop the two-stage-to orbit partially reusable vehicle. And then we will try to develop single-stage-to-orbit reusable vehicle.