Long March-5B
Long March VB Carrier Rocket System is mainly used for the development and launching of CZ-5B carrier rockets. CZ-5B carrier rocket, which carries out the launching of core capsules and experimental capsules in the space station, is currently the most powerful carrier rocket in China. The Long March 5B rocket uses a one-and a half configuration with a take-off weight of 837.5 tons and a near-Earth orbit carrying capacity greater than 22 tons.
On 19 June 2018, China Space Technology Group Co., Ltd. reported that China will launch the first flight of the Chang Zheng 5B or CZ-5B carrier rocket in June 2019. The rocket, designed by a Chinese space technology group based on CZ-5 technology, is in its first test phase to launch a space station.
China's Long March-5B carrier rocket was scheduled to make its maiden flight in the first half of 2020, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) 24 April 2019. A test version of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, which will serve China's manned space exploration mission, was under development, and the research and development of the core module of the country's space station have carried on as planned. The Long March-5B rocket, with a low-Earth orbit with a carrying capacity greater than 22 tonnes, will be used to launch the core module and experiment modules of China's space station in the future. Joint tests and exercises were carried out in the Wenchang Space Launch Center at the end of 2019 to make preparations for the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, which would help lay the groundwork for the construction of the space station.
On March 16 and April 9 of 2019, elements of China's space launch failed twice. For more than a month, the model team and the aerospace experts concentrated on efforts to carry out in-depth review of problems, cause analysis, and test verification. The fault location and mechanism of the two failures were basically clear. At the same time, the relevant departments organized a comprehensive quality rectification and review review across the entire spaceflight, and made appropriate adjustments to the rocket launch plan originally scheduled to be implemented in the near future. On the basis of a large amount of quality safety and reliability work carried out in the early stage, in response to the two recent launch failures, the Long March 5B carrier rocket and mission-related systems immediately carried out fault stripping and inferences, and re-checked the technical status and product quality Review and confirm again, comprehensively investigate risks and weak links, further improve the plan, and strive to turn the lessons of failure into valuable wealth.
The first flight mission verified the correctness of the rocket program and evaluated the functional performance of the rocket. In order to give full play to the comprehensive benefits of the first flight mission, the rocket was equipped with a "new-generation manned spaceship test ship", a flexible inflatable cargo return cabin test cabin, and more than 10 experimental loads.
Among them, the new generation of manned spaceship test ship is a new generation of space shuttle for the operation of China’s space station and future manned moon exploration. The new prototype expands the number of crew that can be sent into space to six from three in an earlier model. This mission provided heat protection, control, and group umbrella for the high-speed reentry of the spacecraft Key technologies such as recycling and partial reuse are verified; the flexible inflatable cargo return cabin test cabin was a test for China's new type of space transportation aircraft. This mission will verify the key technologies of the inflatable deployable return aircraft orbit reentry. According to the flight procedures, the test cabin and the test ship will return to the Dongfeng landing site on May 6 and 8 after completing the on-orbit test.
According to plan, China's space station will be completed around 2022, and a total of 12 flight missions are planned. After this mission, China will launch the Tianhe core module, Wentian experimental module and Mengtian experimental module successively to carry out the on-orbit assembly and construction of the basic configuration of the space station; Spaceship, astronaut crew rotation and cargo replenishment. At present, the core module of China's space station has completed the assembly of the prototype product, and the first prototype development of the Wentian experimental module and the Mengtian experimental module is being carried out. The crew has been selected and is conducting mission training. In addition, China's third batch of astronaut selection work will also be completed around July this year.
At 18:00 on May 5, 2020, the Long March 5B carrier rocket carried a new-generation manned spaceship test ship and a flexible inflatable cargo return test cabin, and lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China The mission was a complete success. Ji Qiming, assistant director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said at the press conference that evening that the successful launch not only achieved the success of the first mission of the manned space project, but also fought for China Aerospace for follow-up.
The Long March 5B carrier rocket has a total length of about 53.7 meters, a core level of 5 meters in diameter, and bundles 4 boosters with a diameter of 3.35 meters. The fairing is 20.5 meters long and 5.2 meters in diameter. It uses non-toxic and non-polluting liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. With kerosene as the propellant, the take-off mass is about 849 tons, and the low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is greater than 22 tons.
The successful first flight of the Long March 5B carrier rocket verified the correctness and coordination of the overall rocket plan and the sub-system plans, and broke through the large-size fairing separation technology, the large-diameter cabin and rocket connection separation technology, and the large thrust direct orbit deviation A number of new technologies, such as precision control technology, have laid an important foundation for China's space station orbit construction task. According to reports, since the arrival of the Long March 5B carrier rocket, it has participated in the launch site training together with the first sample products of the core module of the space station that arrived earlier. After the end of the joint training in late March 2020, the Long March 5B carrier rocket was fully prepared for its first flight.
It is currently the rocket with the largest low-Earth orbit carrying capacity in China.
China's new prototype spacecraft "successfully landed" on 08 May 2020, marking an important step in its ambitions to run a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon. The spacecraft arrived safely at a predetermined site, the China Manned Space Agency said, after a hitch in an earlier part of the key test. It said the cabin structure of the spacecraft had been confirmed on site as being intact. The test vessel was launched with a cargo capsule aboard a new type of carrier rocket from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan. The space agency said the vessel was in orbit for two days and 19 hours and had completed a number of experiments.
The return also verified the spacecraft's capabilities such as its heat resistance. It was hoped the spaceship will one day transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 - and eventually to the Moon. The safe landing follows a snag in an earlier part of the test when an unspecified "anomaly" occurred during the return of the cargo capsule.
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