China's Space Program Thread II

[by78]

Infograph on all the launches of 2024.

 

[by78]

An image of a tranquil-looking Korean peninsula taken by Fenyun-4B yesterday.

Images (from a Jilin-1 satellite) of Muan airport taken before and after the disaster.

 

[by78]

Galatic Energy's dedicated launchpad at Jiuquan, which will be used to launch the company's Pallas series of rockets once the facility is finished..

 

[nativechicken]

Doesn't matter anyway because it seems to be one of the early concepts that was abandoned. See the smaller crew launcher with 4 boosters, that seems to be crewed CZ-5 (planned). In Long Lehao's paper he called it CZ-5A (removing 2nd stage, 25T LEO), which eventually named as CZ-5B instead. The two larger launchers look like 2 staged CZ-9 in conceptual phase. The whole idea uses LEO station in the same way as constellation program. I'd say the paper is from around 2010 or before.

Details of the rockets can be seen in
View attachment 142233
View attachment 142234



This is from this paper, I got it from this forum.

They are not the same rocket. The two rockets in this literature are actually quite new. The 8-meter version of the Long March 9 featured here is, in fact, a design that has never been publicly disclosed before (its first appearance). The key distinguishing features from other versions are as follows:

1. This is a three-and-a-half-stage Long March 9 with an 8-meter body.
2. This 8-meter diameter Long March 9, equipped with boosters, has a notably short first-stage engine.
3. The upper attachment point of the booster is connected to the engine frame/tank reinforcement ring of the rocket's second stage.

Additionally, I recall that in 2010, Academician Long Lehao mentioned that the manned launch vehicle was designed with six boosters, not four.

 

[nativechicken]

An academic paper on China's future orbital solar power station. The paper states the medium-term goal is to begin construction on a megawatt-class orbital solar power station in 2030 and finish by 2035. For this, the only current suitable launch vehicle is the Long March 5. The long-term goal is to finish building a gigawatt-class power station by 2050, and the designated launch vehicle for this endeavor is the fully reusable LOX/Methane two-stage Long March 9. The rocket should have a takeoff thrust exceeding 60,000 kN, a takeoff mass exceeding 4,300 tons, with a fuselage diameter of 10.6 m, a fairing diameter of 10.6 m, a height of 106 m, and a LEO carrying capacity of around 90 tons. The 1st-stage is to be recovered via the chopstick method, and the 2nd-stage is to be recovered by landing vertically (via landing legs) either on a barge at sea or back at the launch site.

The additional value of this literature lies in the following points:

1. SpaceX's Starship does not have the concept of a fairing; if anything, it has hatches. Therefore, an interesting point of observation in the future will be how the Long March 9 rocket implements the second-stage fairing.
2. The payload envelope of 10x30 meters represents an exceptionally large payload volume. The trusses for space solar power stations, as disclosed in other literature (on space flight assembly), are 30 meters long and assembled from multiple segments.

 

[_killuminati_]

 

[taxiya]

They are not the same rocket. The two rockets in this literature are actually quite new. The 8-meter version of the Long March 9 featured here is, in fact, a design that has never been publicly disclosed before (its first appearance). The key distinguishing features from other versions are as follows:

1. This is a three-and-a-half-stage Long March 9 with an 8-meter body.
2. This 8-meter diameter Long March 9, equipped with boosters, has a notably short first-stage engine.
3. The upper attachment point of the booster is connected to the engine frame/tank reinforcement ring of the rocket's second stage.

Do you have any official paper, ppt to show of this 8 meter variant? Or are you confusing the later 3.5 stage CZ-9 with earlier 2.5 stage CZ-9?

Additionally, I recall that in 2010, Academician Long Lehao mentioned that the manned launch vehicle was designed with six boosters, not four.

There are two alternatives. What you are talking about is aternative a that only involves CZ-5DY being launched multiple times. What I talked about is alternative b which involves CZ-9. This CZ-9 is the earliest known CZ-9 config that uses tank of 9 metre class (8 to 10 metres). See the highlight of item e.

 

[by78]

A small robotic assistant onboard the Chinese space station.

 

[by78]

LandSpace LOX/Methane TQ-12 engines.

 

[by78]

Hefei is set to become home to the future Planetary Environment and Simulation Facility, part of China's Deep Space Exploration Laboratory.