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CZ-6 Unmanned Space Launch Vehicle

The Long March 6 is a high-speed response launch vehicle capable of placing a payload of about 1 metric ton into a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 700 km. The new engine, which has been developed by the academy since 2000, will use liquid oxygen and kerosene as its propellants, meaning it is much more eco-friendly than current engines. The new engine has a thrust that is 60 percent greater than current ones and can carry a payload 2.5 times larger than its predecessors. Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, the liquid-fuelled carrier rocket has only a modest lift capability of some 1080 kg.

China will soon conduct the first flight of the Long March 6 launch vehicle using the country's new-generation rocket engine, according to a senior scientist 10 March 2015. "A launch of the Long March 6 is planned in the middle of the year and it will use the newly developed 120-ton-thrust engine as its main propulsion," said Tan Yonghua, president of the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology and a national lawmaker.

An astronautical researcher close to the nation's space program said China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp developed the Long March 6 in an attempt to gain more foreign contracts for launching lightweight satellites. "Many satellites weighing less than 1 ton are soon expected to enter service, so the rocket doesn't need to have a heavy payload capacity," the researcher said 10 March 2015 on condition of anonymity. "Therefore, if we continued to use our current rockets to launch them, it would be a huge waste. The Long March 6 will fill the gap in our rocket family."

The Long March-6 carrier rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province at 7 a.m. Beijing time on September 20, 2015. The 20 satellites, including nine amateur radio satellites, were developed by a number of universities and space research institutes across China. The satellites separated from the rocket 15 minutes after blasting off from Taiyuan.

This kerosene liquid oxygen series of boosters in all cases are to do the building block technology demonstration path finding hard development work for the benefit of the Long March-5 medium heavy lift booster series.

This launch vehicle will be used strictly for carrying unmanned launches with a smaller diameter payload shroud. This will give the booster a payload capacity on the order of 500 kilograms. DragonInSpace.com reports that the rocket is capable of sending 1,000~1,500kg payload into the 700km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) and supports multiple payloads on a single rocket. This booster series has had it entire inertial guidance and flight avionics control systems totally redesigned for greater accuracy and safety. The two stage booster is based on the Long March-5, 2.25 meter diameter strap-on boosters. Its first stage will utilize a single 120 tons thrust YF-100 kerosene liquid oxygen propellants engine. That gives it a total liftoff thrust on the order of 120 metric tons. What it will utilize for its second stage has not yet been identified but could be the 2.25 meter diameter liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen third stage of the Long March-3, 3A series. Its first flight test is expected in the 2009-2010 time period.

The 2006 Chinese Government White Paper on space stated that Long March-6 will be a new type of high-speed response launch vehicle, which will be capable of placing not less than 1 ton of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 700 km. DragonInSpace.com reports that the rocket was designed to be capable of ‘rapid launch’. The rocket will be assembled in the factory and transported to the launch site in one piece. The rocket is then fuelled in the horizontal position, before being erected on the launch pad ready for launch. The whole launch campaign only requires 5~7 days.

On September 6th 2009 China's National Space Administration announced that it had started the development of the (Long March) CZ-6 boosters with its expected launch scheduled for the middle of the next five year plan during 2013. It is being lead by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation utilizing the existing industrial base for hardware construction development.

On the morning of September 20, 2015, China's new-generation carrier rocket, Long March 6, was launched in Taiyuan, sending 20 satellites into orbits 524 kilometers from the earth, the highest in Asia.

The Long March 6 is 29.3 meters long and has a takeoff weight of 103 tons. The liquid oxygen kerosene engine developed in China also completed the first flight test along with the Long March 6. The engine is non-toxic and pollution-free, and it is a qualitative leap in technology.

As for the Long March No. 6 mobile chassis, it has horizontal assembly, horizontal test, horizontal transfer to the launch site. Isn't this the same as mobile intercontinental missiles? "One arrow and 20 satellites" explains: DF21D, DF26's anti-aircraft carrier system is fully mature, and the vital satellite reconnaissance, tracking, and guidance are fundamentally guaranteed.

Some speculated that the carrier of the Long March 6 rocket may actually be an improved model of the carrier of China's Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, and Dongfeng 41 has adopted the WS-2900 series developed by Sanjiang Wanshan Special Vehicle Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Aerospace Science and Industry Group. 8-axle special vehicles. But in fact, the two Chinese companies responsible for the development and production of missile weapons usually only use the special vehicles developed by the group. This is regarded as a practice. Carefully observing the logo of the CZ-6 vehicle, it can be seen that this logo comes from Taian Special Vehicle Company, a subsidiary of Dongfeng-41 Development Unit, and Dongfeng-41 is also developed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group.

Long March-6A, China's new-generation medium-sized launch vehicle, conducted a successful maiden flight at 5:50 pm on 29 March 2022 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi Province, sending two satellites into preset orbits. The rocket sent Tiankun-2 and Pujiang-2 satellites into their designated orbits. Tiankun-2 is a new technology experiment satellite developed by the Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), and its developers told the Global Times that it could provide a range of services such as space science exploration. Inheriting the high functional density of Tiankun-1, the first experimental satellite independently developed by CASIC, which was sent into orbit in March 2017, Tiankun-2 has lower manufacturing costs and is smaller in size. The Tiankun-2 is tasked with verifying key technologies such as new attitude and orbit control algorithms, multi-functional flexible cladding materials, and computational optical imaging, satellite developers revealed.

The rocket is developed by the Shanghai Academy of Space Technology (SAST), a subordinate of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The successful launch marked the first victory of SAST new rocket type development in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). Developers said the news was a confidence boost as Shanghai is struggling with a COVID-19 flare-up.

At launch, the rocket has a weight of 530 tons and is capable of sending payload of no less than 4 tons to the Sun-synchronous orbit. The new member of the Long March carrier rocket family is 50 meters in height and has two 3.35-meter-diameter stages with the first adopting a 120-ton-thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and a 18-ton-thurst one for the second, said a statement the SAST provided to the Global Times.

Marking a design breakthrough in the country's aerospace history, the new rocket has four 2-meter-diamter solid-propellant boosters attached to its body, developers said. The boosters also have two stages and have a thrust of 120 tons, which are developed by the Fourth Academy of the CASC. It is the first rocket type that has realized a cooperation of liquid and solid engines in China, clearing key technical barriers such as the solid boosters attachment and detachment technology, developers said.

Such a propellant technology would fully utilize the advantages of the two systems - the liquid engine has long working time with high performance while the solid one has more powerful thrust and better reliability and is easy to maintain. The birth of the Long March-6A would further enrich the type of spectrum of China's rockets, enhancing China's capability in space exploration, analysts pointed out. Adopting a similar technological path, the US Atlas 5, Europe's Ariane 5 and H-2A of Japan have performed several successful flights. However, it was a first for a Chinese rocket in active service to perform a flight with solid boosters, developers added.

The Long March-6A could also enable rapid launches with preparations of only 14 days thanks to the newly built launch site at the Taiyuan Center, which will meet the highly frequent launch requirement to the medium and low orbit satellites, insiders said. According to the developers, the Long March-6A also adopted a range of new technologies used at launch such as the "unattended operation" that started four hours before the blast-off, enhancing safety.

To make the "unattended operation" a reality, the rocket must perform an automatic docking and fueling via remote control, the rocket ground connector should also automatically fall off at the moment of take-off and once the propellant injection starts, it requires no personnel to watch over at the launch pad, which all marked firsts in China. Hong Gang, the rocket type's commander-in-chief, told the Global Times that as the rocket is developed in a path of modularization, combination and modularization, it could also come in different variants according to the mission demand such as ones without boosters or other forms with two boosters.