Long March (rocket family)

A Long March rocket (simplified Chinese: 长征系列运载火箭; traditional Chinese: 長征系列運載火箭; pinyin: Chángzhēng xìliè yùnzài huǒjiàn) or Changzheng rocket in Chinese pinyin is any rocket in a family of expendable launch systems operated by the People's Republic of China. Development and design falls under the auspices of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. In English, the rockets are abbreviated as LM- for export and CZ- within China, as "Chang Zheng" means "Long March" in Chinese pinyin. The rockets are named after the Long March of Chinese communist history.

History

Long March 3A launch
Long March 3B launch

China launched its first satellite, known as Dong Fang Hong 1 (lit. "The East is Red 1"), into Earth orbit on its Long March space rocket on April 24, 1970, becoming the fifth nation to achieve independent launch capability. Early launches had an inconsistent record, focusing on launching of Chinese satellites.

Starting in 1990, the Long March rocket entered the international market. However, several setbacks occurred during the early 1990s. On January 26, 1995, a Long March 2E rocket veered off course two seconds after take-off from Xichang space center and exploded, killing at least six on the ground. On February 14, 1996, a similar failure occurred during the launch of Intelsat 708: The rocket veered severely off course immediately after clearing the launch tower and crashed into a village.[1]

Following the disaster, foreign media were sequestered in a bunker for five hours while, some have alleged, the Chinese military attempted to 'clean up' the damage. Officials later blamed the failure on an "unexpected gust of wind"[2] Xinhua News Agency initially reported 6 deaths and 57 injuries.[3]

In the aftermath of the explosion, U.S. satellite makers shared information that allowed the Chinese to determine that the problem was in the welds.[4] This sharing of information was later deemed illegal by the United States, and U.S. satellite maker Loral Space and Communications was fined $14 million by the U.S. government.[5]

For thirteen years starting in August 1996, 75 consecutive successful launches were conducted, including multiple milestones:

The string of successful launches ended on August 31, 2009, when the launch of Palapa-D partially failed due to a third stage malfunction.[6]

On the June 11, 2013, a Long March 2F, launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, putting three astronauts into orbit for the Shenzhou 10 mission.[7]

As of March 2016, there have been 225 Long March missions.[8]

Payloads

The Long March is China's primary expendable launch system family. The Shenzhou spacecraft and Chang'e lunar orbiters are also launched on the Long March rocket. The maximum payload for LEO is 12,000 kg (CZ-3B), the maximum payload for GTO is 5,500 kg (CZ-3B/E). The next generation rocket – Long March 5 variants will offer more payload in the future.

Propellants

Long March 1's 1st and 2nd stage uses nitric acid and UDMH propellants, and its upper stage uses a spin-stabilized solid rocket engine.

Long March 2, Long March 3, Long March 4, the main stages and associated liquid rocket boosters use dinitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizing agent and UDMH as the fuel. The upper stages (third stage) of Long March 3 rockets use YF-73 and YF-75 engines, using Liquid hydrogen (LH2) as the fuel and Liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer.

The new generation of Long March rocket family, Long March 5, and its derivations Long March 6, Long March 7 will use LOX and kerosene as core stage and liquid booster propellant, with LOX and LH2 in upper stages.

Variants

Timeline of Long March rocket families

The Long March rockets are organized into several series:

Model Status Stages Length
(m) 		Max. diameter
(m) 		Liftoff mass
(t) 		Liftoff thrust
(kN) 		Payload
(LEO, kg) 		Payload
(GTO, kg)
Long March 1Retired329.862.2581.61,020300 -
Long March 1DRetired328.222.2581.11,101930 -
Long March 2ARetired231.173.351902,7861,800 -
Long March 2CActive235.153.351922,7862,400 -
Long March 2DActive2 33.667
(without shield)		3.35232 2,9623,100 -
Long March 2ERetired[9]2 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		49.6867.854625,9239,500 3,500
Long March 2E(A)canceled[10] 2 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		53.60N/A 6958,91014,100-
Long March 2FActive2 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		58.347.854805,9238,400 3,370
Long March 3Retired[9]343.83.352022,9625,000 1,500
Long March 3AActive352.523.352412,9628,500 2,600
Long March 3BActive3 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		54.8387.854265,92412,000 5,100
Long March 3B/EActive3 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		56.3267.85458.97?? 5,500
Long March 3B(A)In development3 (plus 4
Strap-on boosters)		62.007.85580 8,91013,000 6,000
Long March 3CActive3 (plus 2
Strap-on boosters)		55.6387.853454,443 ? 3,800
Long March 4ARetired341.93.352492,9624,000 (SSO)
1,500
Long March 4BActive344.13.352542,9714,200 (SSO)
2,200
Long March 4CActive345.83.35 2,971?4,200 (SSO)
2,800
Long March 5[11][12]Active3625867N/A25,000 14,000
Long March 6[13][14]Active3293.35103  (SSO)
500
Long March 7Active2573.35594720013,5007000[15]
Long March 8In study       
Long March 9In study  8 to 10[16]3000 130,00050,000
Long March 11Active3 solid( +1 liquid?)20.8~2 58 700 (SSO)
350
2A 2C 2D 2E 2F 3 3A 3B 3C 4A 4B 4C

Long March 8

A new series of launch vehicles in study, which is geared towards SSO launches.[17]

Long March 9

Long March 9[18] (LM-9, CZ-9, or Changzheng 9, Chinese: 长征九号) is a Chinese super-heavy carrier rocket that is currently in study. It is planned for a maximum payload capacity of at least 130,000 kg[19] to LEO or at least 50,000 kg to Lunar Transfer Orbit.[20] Its first flight is expected in 2025 in preparation for a manned lunar landing in 2029. If produced, it would be classified as a Super Heavy lift launch vehicle along with the American Saturn V and unsuccessful Soviet N1; and the Space Launch System and Falcon Heavy currently under development in the United States.

Long March 11

The Long March 11 is a solid-fuel rocket that applies China's largest solid-fuel rocket engine and was designed to meet the need to rapidly launch satellites in case of emergencies or disasters. Its first launch on 25 September 2015, was reported to be successful and launched 4 micro satellites into sun synchronous orbits.[21][22]

Origins

The Long March 1 rocket is derived from earlier Chinese 2-stage IRBM DF-4, or Dong Feng 4 missile, and Long March 2, Long March 3, Long March 4 rocket families are derivatives of the Chinese 2-stage ICBMs DF-5, or Dong Feng 5 missile. However, like its counterparts in both the United States and in Russia, the differing needs of space rockets and strategic missiles have caused the development of space rockets and missiles to diverge. The main goal of a space rocket is to maximize payload, while for strategic missiles increased throw weight is much less important than the ability to launch quickly and to survive a first strike. This divergence has become clear in the next generation of Long March rockets, which use cryogenic propellants in sharp contrast to the next generation of strategic missiles, which are mobile and solid fuelled.

The next generation of Long March rocket, Long March 5 rocket family will be a brand new design, while Long March 6 and Long March 7 can be seen as derivations because they use the liquid rocket booster design of Long March 5 to build small-to-mid capacity launch vehicles.

Launch sites

There are four launch centers in China. They are:

Most of the commercial satellite launches of Long March vehicles have been from Xichang Satellite Launch Center, located in Xichang, Sichuan province. Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan province is under expansion and will be the main launch center for future commercial satellite launches. Long March launches also take place from the more military oriented Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province from which the manned Shenzhou spacecraft also launches. Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center is located in Shanxi province and focuses on the launches of Sun-synchronous orbit satellites.

Commercial launch services

China markets launch services under the China Great Wall Industry Corporation.[23] Its efforts to launch communications satellites were dealt a blow in the mid-1990s after the United States stopped issuing export licenses to companies to allow them to launch on Chinese launch vehicles out of fear that this would help China's military. In the face of this, Thales Alenia Space built the Chinasat-6B satellite with no components from the United States whatsoever. This allowed it to be launched on a Chinese launch vehicle without violating U.S. ITAR restrictions.[24] The launch, on a Long March 3B rocket, was successfully conducted on July 5, 2007. A Chinese Long March 2D launched Venezuela's VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite 1) "Francisco de Miranda" on September 29, 2012.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Long March Rocket Explodes - 長征火箭爆炸 长征火箭爆炸 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJ9ue6GKek
  2. ↑ "China's Space Disasters". Discovery.
  3. ↑ Zak, Anatoly (2013). "Disaster at Xichang". Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Hughes and Loral: Too Eager to Help China?". Business Week. September 13, 1999.
  5. ↑ Mintz, John, "2 U.S. space giants accused of aiding China Hughes, Boeing allegedly gave away missile technology illegally", The Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2003
  6. ↑ ""帕拉帕－Ｄ"通信卫星未能进入预定轨道". Xinhua. August 31, 2009. Retrieved August 31, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Chinese spacecraft blasts off from Gobi desert". The Guardian. 11 June 2013.
  8. ↑ "China launches 22nd BeiDou navigation satellite". Xinhuanet. Xinhua. 2016-03-30. Retrieved 2016-03-30. It was the 225th launch of the Long March carrier rocket.
  9. 1 2 "CZ". Astronautix.com. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
  10. ↑ "CZ-2EA地面风载试验". 中国空气动力研究与发展中心. February 4, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2008.
  11. ↑ "cz5". SinoDefence.
  12. ↑ "CZ-NGLV". astronautix.com.
  13. ↑ "China starts developing Long March 6 carrier rockets for space mission _English_Xinhua". News.xinhuanet.com. September 6, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
  14. ↑ "ChangZheng 6 (Long March 6) Launch Vehicle". SinoDefence.com. February 20, 2009. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
  15. ↑ "长征七号运载火箭". baidu.com.
  16. ↑ "China develops new rocket for manned moon mission: media". spacedaily.com.
  17. ↑ http://www.chinanews.com/mil/2015/03-07/7109962.shtml
  18. ↑ http://www.chinesedefence.com/forums/chinese-strategic-forces/3353-cz-9-chinas-next-gen-rocket-moon-landing.html
  19. ↑ "First Look: China's Big New Rockets". AmericaSpace.
  20. ↑ 509. "梁小虹委员：我国重型运载火箭正着手立项 与美俄同步". people.com.cn.
  21. ↑ Xinhua (2013-03-02). "China's first solid-fuel rocket to debut before 25 September 2016". chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
  22. ↑ "长征十一号运载火箭首飞成功 将4颗微小卫星送入太空". xinhuanet.com.
  23. ↑ "About CGWIC". CGWIC.
  24. ↑ "China launches satellite despite restrictions". USA Today. July 6, 2007. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
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