China's Space Program Thread II

[taxiya]

I have posted this news in nuclear thread on DF-5C development then realized there is actually something bigger in this news.

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On 05/10/2022, CASC No.6 Institute successfully conducted the first gas generator-turbine pump joint test of a kerosene engine, which is the main engine for next-gen rocket launch vehicle. The program was formally approved in 03/2019.


3D printer parts make up 25% of this fully-digitalized engine, such as oxygen valve...

This engine has 80% chance to be YF-135 as all other kerosene engines have already entered hot test phase except YF-135.
Also the chief designer of YF-130 is Chen Hui, and the chief designer of YF-100 series is Liu Zhanguo as chief designer of this particular engine is Yang Yalong.

YF-130 entered the same phase on 08/01/2016, so there is a 6-year gap between YF-130 and YF-135 though we didn't know if the research on YF-130 would accelerate the development of YF-135. My conservative estimation is no earlier than 2027 to see the first hot test of YF-135, so I highly doubt CASC could proceed with altered rocket plan before 2030.

	First gas generator-turbine pump joint test	First engine hot test	First flight
YF-100	2000	07/03/2006	09/20/2015
YF-130	08/01/2016	11/05/2022
YF-135	05/10/2022

Are you sure of 2016? YF-130 gas generator-turbine pump joint test was reported in March 2019. This is the only time that I've heard its done. It was discussed back then in this thread. There was nobody here or outside saying anything else. Here is the official report.

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The same test was repeated in May 2021 but with full working load, indicating the 2019 test was not full power.

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Then there was the 分系统测试 that is oxygen pump and fuel pump and their gas generators being tested separately before 2019. I think you mistake these two phases.

So the time gap between YF-130 and 135 is only 1 to 3 years apart depending which one you count. And YF-135 is likely faster than YF-130 in development because it utilizes the experience and knowledge acquired from YF-130 and also has new and faster development method according to the article. Going by YF-130's 3 year gap, YF-135 would be doing the full engine hot test at the latest in 2025.

 

[Kalec]

Are you sure of 2016? YF-130 gas generator-turbine pump joint test was reported in March 2019. This is the only time that I've heard its done. It was discussed back then in this thread. There was nobody here or outside saying anything else. Here is the official report.

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The same test was repeated in May 2021 but with full working load, indicating the 2019 test was not full power.

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The there was the 分系统测试 that is oxygen pump and fuel pump and their gas generators being tested separately before 2019. I think you mistake these two phases.

So the time gap between YF-130 and 135 is only 1 to 3 years apart depending which one you count. And YF-135 is likely faster than YF-130 in development because it utilizes the experience and knowledge acquired from YF-130 and also has new and faster development method according to the article. Going by YF-130's 3 year gap, YF-135 would be doing the full engine hot test at the latest in 2025.

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I hope you are right though, they did conduct the first gas generator-turbine pump joint test back in 2016. They should have gained more experience in designing work of YF-100 and YF-130 but YF-135 is a very advance kerosene engine for decades to come.

If CASC can do their hot test around 2025/2026, there would be a great success to launch CZ-9 into space around 2030, or at least 2035.

 

[taxiya]

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I hope you are right though, they did conduct the first gas generator-turbine pump joint test back in 2016. They should have gained more experience in designing work of YF-100 and YF-130 but YF-135 is a very advance kerosene engine for decades to come.

If CASC can do their hot test around 2025/2026, there would be a great success to launch CZ-9 into space around 2030, or at least 2035.

That is the component test that I talked about. The phrase "gas generator and turbopump joint test" in your link covers many steps over many years. In another report it was specified as being ignition test. See here

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It raises a question of what exactly was tested on "YF-135" this year. Is it equivalent to YF-130's 2016, 2019, 2021?

 

[Kalec]

That is likely the component tests. The phrase "gas generator and turbopump joint test" covers many steps over many years. In another report it was specified as being ignition test. See here

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View attachment 101669
It raises a question of what exactly was tested on "YF-135" this year. Is it equivalent to YF-130's 2016, 2019, 2021?

It also raises question over the difficulties of developing YF-135 tubropump. At the end of day YF-135 has lower thrust than YF-130 even if it has a higher chamber pressure, would it be easier to design its pump than YF-130?

And it is worth noting they didn't publish the news like they did in 2016 or 2019 but inserted the news in the middle of general news without mentioning its name or thrust. CASC usually publishes news in such a subtle way for military-use engine.

 

[anzha]

A few bits. These have been in my reader for a bit as I have been a little busy.

More Long March 5b launches planned:

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No expendable LM9:

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Spaceplane news and activities:

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A lunar space monitoring sat. The USSF is considering one, too. Interesting that both powers are wanting to watch that high up:

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China is considering a mission to Ceres (woo!) and a Dark Matter Space Telescope!

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[H2O]

A model of Tengyun from Zhuhai...

Does anybody have any updates to this project? Or, is this stuck in limbo due to lack of interest from the government?

 

[by78]

Tianzhou-4 unmanned cargo spacecraft undocks from the Chinese space station.

 

[j17wang]

Tianzhou-4 unmanned cargo spacecraft undocks from the Chinese space station.

And Tianzhou-5 launches to arrive soon!

 

[by78]

Another launch today. A Long March 6 rocket has successfully inserted the Yunhai-3 (云海三号) satellite into the pre-determined orbit. Sorry, but no high quality images of the launch are available at this time, but here are some pre-launch images to compensate.

 

[by78]

The 80-ton LOX/Methane YF-209 engine has successfully completed its second full-engine test run just five days after completing its first.