Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Shenzhou II ?
China's Space Program News Thread
- Thread starter crazyinsane105
- Start date
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Manned moon and astroid missions, as well as new space station and crew vehicle, plus remote controlled robotic arms...
The first mission profile is from the Constellation program per caption. Given that same Ares I and Ares V rocket are used in other mission profiles, they are for illusion purpose only. Long March 9 is expected to have 140t LEO payload, smaller than Ares V's 188t but larger than SLS Block 2's 130t. Long March 7's 13.5t LEO payload is also smaller than Ares I's 25.4t. The actual mission will be quite different than what is depicted here.
China's moon program is in two phases.
Phase 1.
One type of rocket, three launches, LEO rendezvous and docking.
The rocket in the plan as of 2010 was a variant of CZ-5DY. LEO 50t. In total, 150t to LEO, or 53t to LTO.
CZ-5DY replaces the 5m 2xYF-77 LH2/LOX first stage of CZ-5 with 5m 4xYF-100 Kerosene/LOX. CZ-5DY uses 2xYF-77 as the second stage instead of 2YF-75D of CZ-5. CZ-5DY has six 3.5m boosters instead of four in other CZ-5 versions.
It seems that this version is abandoned in favour of a new design, still made up of same engines and 5m rocket tankages. But a CBC first stage. It is called "921", certainly not the official name. Its LEO payload is 70t, LTO 25t.
It could be that only two launches are needed to deliver 50t to the moon (same as Apollo) instead of three launches.
Phase 2:
CZ-9 for cargo, 921 for crew. Most likely NON LEO rendezvous and docking because both rockets have the capacity to deliver their tasked payload to the moon directly.
Phase 1 launch sequence
CZ-5DY
921
Phase 1.
One type of rocket, three launches, LEO rendezvous and docking.
The rocket in the plan as of 2010 was a variant of CZ-5DY. LEO 50t. In total, 150t to LEO, or 53t to LTO.
CZ-5DY replaces the 5m 2xYF-77 LH2/LOX first stage of CZ-5 with 5m 4xYF-100 Kerosene/LOX. CZ-5DY uses 2xYF-77 as the second stage instead of 2YF-75D of CZ-5. CZ-5DY has six 3.5m boosters instead of four in other CZ-5 versions.
It seems that this version is abandoned in favour of a new design, still made up of same engines and 5m rocket tankages. But a CBC first stage. It is called "921", certainly not the official name. Its LEO payload is 70t, LTO 25t.
It could be that only two launches are needed to deliver 50t to the moon (same as Apollo) instead of three launches.
Phase 2:
CZ-9 for cargo, 921 for crew. Most likely NON LEO rendezvous and docking because both rockets have the capacity to deliver their tasked payload to the moon directly.
Phase 1 launch sequence
CZ-5DY
921
There's no update on LM-5 next launch.
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