by78
General
A better image that clearly shows the two test stands.
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
A better image that clearly shows the two test stands.
by78
General
High-resolution images of the successful Tianlong-2 (TL-2) launch.
TL-2 is developed by the private launch provider Tianbing Technology. It uses liquid LOX/kerosene propellant, with the kerosene being derived from coal, as opposed to the traditional and more expensive method of refining kerosene from petroleum. TL-2 has a three-stage configuration and has a total length of 32.8 meters, take-off mass of 150 tons, take-off thrust of 190 tons, LEO capacity of two tons, and SSO capacity 1.5 tons.
The successful first flight of TL-2 achieved multiple firsts:
1) The world's first successful maiden launch of a pure liquid launch vehicle developed by a private company.
2) The world's first successful launch using a staged-combustion-cycle LOX/kerosene engine developed by a private company.
3) The world's first successful flight of a launch vehicle using coal-derived kerosene.
4) The first Chinese liquid launch vehicle that does not rely on a launchpad.
5) The first Chinese launch vehicle using 3D-printed high-pressure staged-combustion-cycle engine.
6) The first Chinese launch vehicle using an open-cycle liquid oxygen kerosene rocket engine (YF-102, more on this later).
7) The first Chinese launch vehicle to have a three-engine cluster on the same motor mount.
8) The first Chinese launch vehicle to have an all-aluminum-alloy surface tension propellant tank for orbit attitude and orbit control maneuvers.
9) The first Chinese launch vehicle to re-use rocket fuselage. This is the same fuselage that previously underwent a full-system hot test run).
The first stage of the TL-2 rocket uses three YF-102 engines. YF-102 is China's first open-cycle LOX/Kerosene engine and was developed by the Sixth Academy of CASC. Sourcing off-the-shelf YF-102 engines from CASC was crucial to shortening the development time of the TL-2 rocket (only two and half years). Also symbolically important, YF-102 became the first member of the "Eight Years Nine Engines" cohort to fly into space.
More on the aluminum alloy surface tension tanks for the last stage of TL-2. Compared to conventional titanium alloy tension tanks, aluminum tanks take half as long to build and enable a 40% cost reduction.
Can we talk about reusable rockets? Who will do it first, a private company or CNSA/CALT? What rocket will be the first? I know that there's like a dozen reusable rocket design from a dozen private companies and their timeline are pretty optimistic but most of them haven't even launched their first liquid fuelled rocket yet, they constantly suffer from delays and some of them are probably aren't even going to survive the next 10 years in an oversaturated market. Not to mention that most of their first reusable rockets are tiny, most of them are lifting less than 5 tons into LEO.
On the other hand CALT has a proven track record, has a history of meeting their deadlines and has announced plenty of reusable rockets of their own. But they move slowly and rarely release any new information. The long march 8, one of their earliest reusable rocket concepts, has launched twice in 2 years.
On the other hand CALT has a proven track record, has a history of meeting their deadlines and has announced plenty of reusable rockets of their own. But they move slowly and rarely release any new information. The long march 8, one of their earliest reusable rocket concepts, has launched twice in 2 years.
I don't think so. It's first flight is 2027 and I think some private company will have reused a rocket by then. That or the already mature rockets like the long march 6/8 that they're planning to develop reusable versions of.
Not to mention that the long march 10 will first launch as an expendable rocket, then upgraded to a reusable version later, as was the case of the Falcon 9. Given that it's China's main workhorse for manned lunar mission, that it to be human rated for the manned lunar landing by 2029/2030, it will probably fly in it's expandable version for a while, as most of the resources will be devoted to making it human rated and preparing for the lunar mission. It's gonna to be hard to ensure that's human rated while also trying to tweak it to be reusable, in a 2 year timespan no less. Unless they can pull a miracle and make the very first version reusable from it's first flight in 2027 without having to change or improve anything.
The steadiness of this control is incredible. This could easily land on a helicopter pad at sea.
by78
General
The Advanced Space-borne Solar Observatory (ASO-S) –– also named as Kuafu-1 (夸父一号) after the mythological giant –– is designed to conduct long-term continuous observation of the Sun. It weighs 888kg and has a design lifespan of four years. It's composed of three payload components: Full-disc Vector Magnetograph (FMG) for observing the vector magnetic field of the solar photosphere; Hard X-Ray Imager (HXI) for observing the non-thermal physical processes of solar flares; Lyman-Alpha Solar Telescope (LST) for observing the formation and early evolution of coronal mass ejections.
China has made available data gathered by Kuafu-1 solar observatory to scientists around the world on a trial basis. Some 400 physicists from 25 countries attended the two-day online conference on the release and data usage training. The release includes all observation data from the Hard X-Ray Imager (HXI) since April 1st and partial data from the Full-Sun Vector Magnetograph (FMG) and the Lyman-Alpha Solar Telescope (LST).
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