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KT-2 / Kaikai-2 / Pioneering / Trailblazer / Development No. 2

The Kaikai-2 launch vehicle is one of the five major launch systems planned by the Fourth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation in the field of commercial aerospace. It has high carrying efficiency, strong mobile launch capabilities, fast mission response speed, low launch guarantee requirements, and environmental adaptation. It has the characteristics of strong performance and good load expandability, which can meet the launch requirements of various types, multi-purpose, and multi-task satellites. The rocket's sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity is 250 kg/700 km, and the low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is 350 kg.

Solid rockets are not as powerful as liquid or liquid-solid hybrid rockets. They can only launch small satellites and tiny satellites in low-earth orbit. However, due to their relatively simple structure and easy operation, the fastest time from assembly to launch at all levels can be 12 hours. Finished within. In contrast, the Long March series rockets often require two to three months of preparation, including complicated steps such as transportation, assembly, low-temperature storage of liquid fuel, and liquid fuel injection. Liquid fuels are easier to volatilize, and safety needs to be paid attention to during transportation and filling. The overall launch process of liquid rockets is far less safe and simple than solid rockets.

The main purpose of the pioneer series of solid small launch vehicles is to enable China to quickly launch low-Earth orbit small satellites. Previously, only the United States and Russia had rapid launch capabilities, because most of these types of rockets were made from ballistic missiles during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S. Taurus solid carrier rocket has a near-Earth carrying capacity of 1,320 kg, the Russian Takeoff carrier has a near-Earth carrying capacity of 532 kg, and China’s Pioneer 1 can only launch a near-Earth microsatellite of less than 100 kg. Can be used for anti-satellite military missions.

A KT-2A version using two 1.4 meter diameter booster thrusters borrowed from the DF-21 ballistic missile, a 1.7 meter diameter second stage as well as a smaller diameter third stage was presented at the early 2000s but without precise indications on its performance.

The three-stage solid rocket KT-2 is to be based on the Chinese ICBM DF-31 and is able to bring a payload of 250 kilograms to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers, or a payload of about 350 kilometers to a standard low earth orbit with an easterly orientation. It uses the first stage of the ICBM DF-31 and the first two stages of DF-21 (or the first two stages of the KT-1). One variant, the KT-2A, uses two boosters from the first stage of Kaituozhe 1.

The preliminary design work of Trailblazer II and IIA was completed in 2002, but had not been put into production as of the end of 2008. Kaituozhe ("Explorer" in Chinese ) is a Chinese light launcher using solid rocket propulsion derived from the DF-21 / DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles. A first version was released in 2002 and 2003 without success. The KT-2 version is an evolved version using components of the DF-21 / DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missiles with three stages of identical diameter equal to 1.4 meters like the DF-21 missile.

When it was founded on May 26, 2000, Space Solid Fuel Rocket Carrier Co. Ltd. (SSRC), a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), had ambitious plans to develop a total of four launch vehicles for commercial satellite launches. During the first launch of Kaituozhe 1 on September 15, 2002 from the Taiyuan Cosmodrome, the second stage of the rocket failed and the technology test satellite that served as a payload was lost. At the same time, SSRC at an exhibition models of two other launch vehicles, the Kaituozhe 2 and the Kaituozhe 2A. The Kaituozhe 2 was then intended to carry payloads of 300 kg in a geostationary transfer orbit or a polar orbit. The Kaituozhe 2A, which had two solid propellant boosters 1 m in diameter, should be able to propel up to three satellites with a total weight of about 400 kg into polar orbits.

The founders of the SSRC had originally hoped to be able to carry out up to ten launches per year after a certain start-up time. That was far from in reality. Due to a lack of revenue - the Kaituozhe 1 had flown only once at the time - the company had a net worth of just 108.31 million yuan on June 30, 2003 with gross assets of 440.21 million yuan. The rest was debt. However, the figures on gross assets are to be viewed with reservations. On January 10, 2001, one month after CASIC, which at that time was still known as "China Aerospace Machinery and Electronics Corporation", increased the registered capital of the SSRC to 101,540,000 yuan, the SSRC reportedly handed over 200 million yuan in cash to Hunan Securities Limited Liability Company and concluded an asset management agreement with it, according to which the Hunan Securities Limited Liability Company should invest the money for one year and receive 15% of the generated return.

In April 2001, the Hunan "Taiyang Securities Co. Ltd." designated securities fell but into financial difficulties and could not repay the 200 million yuan. For 2004, Taiyang Securities reported a net loss of 1.1 billion yuan. Yin Xingliang (1953-2010), the CEO ofSSRC, had been promoted to General Director of CASIC in December 2003, and he retained his post at the SSRC. However, he was removed from office on June 23, 2007 by order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China . His successor at the SSRC was Zhang Zhongfu, General Director of CASIC.

On October 14, 2007, Xu Dazhe was appointed by the XVII Congress of the Communist Party of China to the Party's Central Disciplinary Commission, effectively the highest anti-corruption agency in China. On 24 December 2007, the SSRC in the High People's Court of Hunan Province sued Taiyang Securities for 238,885,700 yuan (the original 200 million plus interest) and 3,439,954 yuan from another transaction. Inconsistencies emerged in the course of the process. On March 25, 2008, the Higher People's Court came to the conclusion that Chen Jun, the managing director of SSRC, and Li Xuanming, the former CEO of Hunan Securities, were guilty of price manipulation in securities transactions .

The process was interrupted and the matter was handed over to the Hunan State Criminal Police Office. After extensive investigations, the results of which were communicated to the court in writing on February 10, 2012, the State Criminal Police Office came to the conclusion that the crime had been committed by a department of SSRC and asked the court to refer the case to the Department for further clarification of White-collar crime. The detectives collected additional evidence, which they sent to the Furong District Prosecutor's Officehanded over. The public prosecutor's office recognized on July 22, 2013 that SSRC had actually manipulated the securities market, but had to state that the evidence was insufficient to initiate its own proceedings. However, less than a year later, on June 11, 2014, Chen Jun and Li Xuanming were found guilty of a criminal trial in the Changsha City Intermediate People's Court . Since the suspicion that they had acted not as individuals but on the orders of their superiors could not be dispelled with absolute certainty, they received a lesser sentence.

SSRC had its own office in the CASIC building complex in Beijing ; it was not a letterbox company in the literal sense of the word. However, the company did not have its own development laboratories or production facilities; these were all at the four subsidiaries of the group that formed the SSRC consortium. Finally, the China Space Sanjiang Group Corporation , which had carried out the final assembly of military missiles on the former 066 base in Hubei since the 1980s, took over the further development and construction of the Kaituozhe 2 (the plans for the KT-2A were abandoned).

The successful maiden flight of the rocket, and the only launch so far, took place on March 2, 2017 at 23:53 UTC from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome The technology testing satellite Tiankun-1 (“Heavenly Giant Fish”, a mythical creature from the opening story of the “Zhuangzi” ) was brought into orbit. The satellite was manufactured by the Defense Technology Academy , also known as "Second Academy", a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and one of the companies involved in SSRC. The achieved orbit showed a perigee according to data from the US space surveillanceof 374 kilometers, an apogee of 404 kilometers and an orbit inclination to the equator of 96.9 °. The "Tiankun-1" new technology test satellite is the first satellite independently developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The main purpose is to carry out remote sensing, communication and small satellite platform technology verification tests. The successful launch of the satellite expanded the spectrum of China's small low-orbit general-purpose satellite platforms.