China's Space Program News Thread
- Thread starter crazyinsane105
- Start date
- Status
Quickie
Colonel
Interesting.
The maiden flight of Long March 7 is a night launch and seems like for LM5 it will be the same.
Hope this is the last delay.
I went to sleep last 4AM EDT wishing I would get news of a successful launch this morning. And it's still on the launch pad now
You're still here? Launching now!
SinoSoldier
Colonel
CZ-5 just lifted off and is still in first stage!
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Booster separation has occurred.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Here is the video. The launch was successful the payload has been separated. China rocket technology is now equal to Delta IV or Arriane 5
Last edited:
Hyperwarp
Captain
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Indeed. They have press conference right now to officially declare the launch a success. It is milestone for China space program without it there will be no space station or further progress in the space program.
It is imperative that china develop this booster. Excellent write up on long march 5 rocket
Excerpt from the article
China’s heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket fired into space on a successful inaugural flight Thursday, debuting a brand new launcher that can carry twice the payload of any other Chinese booster and setting a keystone for the country’s ambitions for a space station and interplanetary exploration.
The maiden test flight gives China a rocket that nearly identically matches the capability of the world’s current space lift leader, United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket, and exceeds the performance of other heavy-lifters like Europe’s Ariane 5 and Russia’s Proton launcher.
The Long March 5 rocket, the product of two decades of research and at least nine years of construction, fabrication and testing, is a centerpiece of China’s plans to assemble a permanently-crewed space station in orbit and send robotic missions to the moon and Mars.
The powerful launcher, driven by 10 engines on its first stage and strap-on boosters, took off at 1243 GMT (8:43 a.m. EDT; 8:43 p.m. Beijing time) Thursday from the Wenchang space center on Hainan Island off the southern coast of the Chinese mainland.
The launch was delayed nearly three hours to resolve concerns with a liquid oxygen venting system and temperatures inside the Long March 5’s engines.
The rocket’s two core stage YF-77 engines, burning a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and flying on a rocket for the first time, ignited with a burst of orange flame in the final seconds of the countdown. Eight kerosene-fueled YF-100 engines, arranged in pairs of two on four strap-on rockets, fired seconds later to propel the beefy booster off the pad.
The Long March 5 quickly soared through a deck of low clouds on top of 2.4 million pounds of thrust, and on-board cameras showed the rocket climbing into the stratosphere as it arced east from Wenchang over the South China Sea.
A live video feed from Chinese state television shared on YouTube showed the Long March 5’s launch, and China’s official CCTV television channel began broadcasting the flight live on its English language service soon after the rocket’s successful liftoff.
On-board cameras aboard the 187-foot-tall (57-meter) rocket showed the four liquid-fueled boosters falling away from the Long March 5’s 16-foot-diameter (5-meter) core stage around 2 minutes, 53 seconds, after liftoff.
Last edited:
- Status