China's Space Program Thread II

[tiancai8888]

Well going by current plans if there aren't delays or failures it definitely seems like the most likely candidate is CASC with Long March 12A. The others that are launching in the coming months aren't attempting reusability immediately I think. The first few launches of Zhuque-3 and Tianlong-3 are expendable and reusability will only come later. Ditto Pallas I think. So unless the Long March 12A launch goes wrong than it should be the first.

Both ZQ-3 & CZ-12A will try to land & recovery the first stage with thier maiden flights. ZQ-3 first stage plan to land onto the landing pad at Minqin, the landing pad was said to completed at end of Aug, should complete by now. CZ-12A plan to launch at Wenchang & landing onto a recovery ship.
In terms of reusability (I mean second launch with an used rocket stage). IMO after a successful recovery. Both rockets need to be disassembled and they have to take time to examine the rocket & to work out a refurbishment plan. SpaceX took a whole year on the F9.
Those two may be faster since they are using methane as fuel which has no coking problem.

 

[ENTED64]

Calling LM-12 an expendable version of 12A is a stretch. They are very different rockets. Different engines, different engine configuration, different fuel types, different tanks.
OTOH, the expendable versions of the ZQ-3 and TL-3 will be essentially the same rocket as their reusable counterparts, just that they won't attempt reuse on initial launches.
So the current launches of LM12 doesn't constitute a launch of 12A in an expendable mode any more than ZQ-2 for ZQ-3 and TL-2 for TL-3.

Really? I thought LM-12A was closer to LM-12, in that case I'm kind of surprised they didn't give it a new designation. So I guess they are taking a somewhat more aggressive approach. Although I presume LM-12A is still closer to LM-12 than say ZQ-2 and ZQ-3 so it's something I guess.

Both ZQ-3 & CZ-12A will try to land & recovery the first stage with thier maiden flights. ZQ-3 first stage plan to land onto the landing pad at Minqin, the landing pad was said to completed at end of Aug, should complete by now. CZ-12A plan to launch at Wenchang & landing onto a recovery ship.
In terms of reusability (I mean second launch with an used rocket stage). IMO after a successful recovery. Both rockets need to be disassembled and they have to take time to examine the rocket & to work out a refurbishment plan. SpaceX took a whole year on the F9.
Those two may be faster since they are using methane as fuel which has no coking problem.

Interesting, I didn't realize ZQ-3 was going for recovery on first flight, I could have sworn I read that the first few flights were going to be expendable like TL-3. I guess it is a race then.

 

[huemens]

Although I presume LM-12A is still closer to LM-12 than say ZQ-2 and ZQ-3 so it's something I guess.

The booster diameter is the same for LM-12 and LM-12A, which is a new size for China. LM-12 uses YF-100k engines which were developed for LM-10.
So, LM-12 could just be an interim platform to test the new booster size (for 12A) and new YF-100k engines (for LM-10).

 

[tiancai8888]

Interesting, I didn't realize ZQ-3 was going for recovery on first flight, I could have sworn I read that the first few flights were going to be expendable like TL-3. I guess it is a race then.

Yes the chief engineer of ZQ-3 Dai Zheng said during a CCTV interview after the ZQ-3 second VTVL test.


And the CZ-12B is more of the descendant of the CZ-12.