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smooth manifold

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11:02 16 Jan 2020
China's Kuaizhou 1A rocket launched a 5G satellite Yinhe-01 from Jiuquan.

The mission is the 10 flight of Kuaizhou series.
 

Armand2REP

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Launch of China’s new Long March 7A ends in failure
by Andrew Jones — March 16, 2020

The first standard Long March 7 (CZ-7) rolled out in 2016. The Long March 7A has an additional third stage. Credit: CASC
Unspecified failure of Long March 7A launch could impact major missions.
HELSINKI — China’s attempt to launch its first new-generation Long March 7A rocket ended in failure Monday, resulting in a classified satellite apparently failing to enter geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Liftoff from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center occurred at 9:34 a.m. Eastern. Launch was initially confirmed by images and footage shared online by distant spectators.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., (CASC), which developed and manufactured the rocket, typically announces launches following declaration of mission success. Similar mission profiles are usually announced to be successful around an hour after launch, but no announcement was made.

State news agency confirmed failure (Chinese) just under two hours after launch, with no cause nor nature of the failure stated. An investigation into the anomaly will follow.

The payload for the launch was earlier stated to be named ‘new technology verification satellite-6’. No further details were released ahead of launch.

Measures to counter the spread of the novel coronavirus have been in force at Wenchang spaceport, though launch campaigns continued.

The launch preparations were conduced discreetly at Wenchang. No announcement of rollout was made nor were airspace closure notices issued. Previous launches from Wenchang, including the return to flight of the Long March 5 in December, were live streamed.

Preparations for the test flight of the Long March 5B are also underway at Wenchang. It is unclear if the Long March 7A failure will have any impact on the launch planned for mid-late April.

Potential impacts of failure
The Long March 7A is a variant of the standard Long March 7, which has flown twice. A 2017 mission to test the Tianzhou refueling spacecraft with Tiangong-2 space lab was its most recent activity. The launcher uses RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellant and could replace older models using toxic propellants.

It modular design means it shares common engines with other new, cryogenic Long March vehicles. Depending on the cause of the anomaly, the failure could impact upcoming missions.

The RP-1/liquid oxygen side boosters and core stage share commonalities with the Long March 5, including YF-100 engines. An issue with these engines could potentially impact planned Long March 5 missions, including China’s first independent interplanetary mission—to Mars—in July. It could also have knock-on effects for China’s space station plans.

If the issue was with the second stage YF-115 engines, the impact of the failure could be limited to the Long March 6 and 7 series rockets. A new variant of the Long March 6 developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology is expected later in 2020.

An upper stage problem could see knock-on effects for the older, Long March 3 series rockets, as the Long March 7A third stage is adapted from the Long March 3B. The 3B is the current workhorse for Chinese GTO launches.

https://spacenews.com/launch-of-chinas-new-long-march-7a-ends-in-failure/
 

HariPrasad-1

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Launch of China’s new Long March 7A ends in failure
by Andrew Jones — March 16, 2020

The first standard Long March 7 (CZ-7) rolled out in 2016. The Long March 7A has an additional third stage. Credit: CASC
Unspecified failure of Long March 7A launch could impact major missions.
HELSINKI — China’s attempt to launch its first new-generation Long March 7A rocket ended in failure Monday, resulting in a classified satellite apparently failing to enter geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Liftoff from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center occurred at 9:34 a.m. Eastern. Launch was initially confirmed by images and footage shared online by distant spectators.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., (CASC), which developed and manufactured the rocket, typically announces launches following declaration of mission success. Similar mission profiles are usually announced to be successful around an hour after launch, but no announcement was made.

State news agency confirmed failure (Chinese) just under two hours after launch, with no cause nor nature of the failure stated. An investigation into the anomaly will follow.

The payload for the launch was earlier stated to be named ‘new technology verification satellite-6’. No further details were released ahead of launch.

Measures to counter the spread of the novel coronavirus have been in force at Wenchang spaceport, though launch campaigns continued.

The launch preparations were conduced discreetly at Wenchang. No announcement of rollout was made nor were airspace closure notices issued. Previous launches from Wenchang, including the return to flight of the Long March 5 in December, were live streamed.

Preparations for the test flight of the Long March 5B are also underway at Wenchang. It is unclear if the Long March 7A failure will have any impact on the launch planned for mid-late April.

Potential impacts of failure
The Long March 7A is a variant of the standard Long March 7, which has flown twice. A 2017 mission to test the Tianzhou refueling spacecraft with Tiangong-2 space lab was its most recent activity. The launcher uses RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellant and could replace older models using toxic propellants.

It modular design means it shares common engines with other new, cryogenic Long March vehicles. Depending on the cause of the anomaly, the failure could impact upcoming missions.

The RP-1/liquid oxygen side boosters and core stage share commonalities with the Long March 5, including YF-100 engines. An issue with these engines could potentially impact planned Long March 5 missions, including China’s first independent interplanetary mission—to Mars—in July. It could also have knock-on effects for China’s space station plans.

If the issue was with the second stage YF-115 engines, the impact of the failure could be limited to the Long March 6 and 7 series rockets. A new variant of the Long March 6 developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology is expected later in 2020.

An upper stage problem could see knock-on effects for the older, Long March 3 series rockets, as the Long March 7A third stage is adapted from the Long March 3B. The 3B is the current workhorse for Chinese GTO launches.

https://spacenews.com/launch-of-chinas-new-long-march-7a-ends-in-failure/
This is followed by two other failures. Their so called heavy lift rocket (Actual capacity 6 to 7 tons but chinese tells that it is 14 tons) has a great failure record. Mark my words, this will disappear from net in some time and 50 cent army will say that rocket has a great success record. The fun was that they tried to do what ISRO does to impress their people. They did live telicast with some time lag. The Telecast had to be aborted.
 

rockdog

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rockdog

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New type as single case is acceptable, but i think the system failture is more worrisome.



Russia’s GLONASS and the Chinese BeiDou system have also experienced technical glitches, of greater or lesser severity. But what happened to Galileo in July 2019 was unprecedented. By the European Commission’s own account, the total system failure lasted from 10–17 July. During that time, according to the European GNSS Agency (GSA), “A team composed of GSA experts, industry, ESA and Commission, worked together 24/7 to address the incident.”

https://insidegnss.com/lessons-to-be-learned-from-galileo-signal-outage/
 

Hari Sud

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I just do not want to hear about that China did this or that. Instead China should own up the coronavirus spread and work hard to remove that stigma from their very positive publicity they have got in last 20 years. Any future dealings with China should be subject to corrections they place for future diseases they spread. They already have SAARS and Coronavirus to their credit in last 15 years. SAARS was deadly and now Coronavirus is even deadlier. Scientists may or may not be able to control the latter. I sincerely hope they do, but our future dealings with China cannot go back to earlier time. We have to control our urge to freely deal with them. What I am saying is that the Wall Street & private money lenders should control their urge to lend as much money as China want as FDI to build its factories and truthfully governments in the West should limit how much China can export to us from those factories. The latter freedom to export as much as they wished is resulting in worst recession or depression since 1933. The value of common man’s assets which was mostly in the Wall Street has taken 30 to 50% hit. That is depression. We have just started on that path, the worst Tsunami of economic news is coming. It may, I hope, sweep away the China lobby in the West completely. We just do not wish to deal with anybody who can send viruses every fifteen year and not truthful about it at all.

Cheers.........
 

rockdog

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I just do not want to hear about that China did this or that.
Interesting, this section and thread is about China did this and did that ...
If you don't like it, why not just go other section?

Virus stuff we dicuss somewhere else.
 

skywatcher

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Screenshots of China's Tianwen-1 Mars rover that is scheduled for launch in July 2020.


 

skywatcher

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Launch time: 5-7 May, 2020
Launch site: Wenchang, Hainan island, China
A Chinese Long March 5B rocket will launch on a test flight with an unpiloted prototype for China’s next-generation human-rated crew capsule designed for missions to the country’s planned space station and for human expeditions to the moon. Delayed from April, 2020.

 

skywatcher

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Past, present and future(by 2030) of all variants of Long March(CZ) family & a curve of annual launches
 
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skywatcher

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Screenshot of China's lunar sample return mission Chang'E-5

Launch time: Oct 2020
Launch site: Hainan island, China
A Chinese Long March 5 rocket will launch the Chang’E 5 mission to return samples from the moon. It is the first lunar sample return mission attempted since Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976. Delayed from 2017, 2018 and 2019.
 

skywatcher

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China launched its most powerful rocket Long March 5B with a next generation crew capsule from Hainan island at 18:00 5 May 2020


 
Last edited:

skywatcher

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the crew capsule prototype

China’s first Long March 5B rocket launches on crew capsule test flight

Flying without astronauts on a demonstration flight in Earth orbit, a test model of a next-generation Chinese crew capsule lifted off Tuesday on top of a heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket, the same launcher configuration that will loft segments of China’s planned space station.

The 176-foot-tall (53.7-meter) Long March 5B rocket lit its 10 main engines and climbed into space at approximately 1000 GMT (6 a.m. EDT; 6 p.m. Beijing time) from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island in southern China.

A live webcast produced by China’s state-run CCTV television network showed the rocket’s final countdown and launch from the Wenchang spaceport. Wenchang is China’s newest launch site, allowing vehicles to soar downrange over the South China Sea, rather than dropping stages on land as is the case during missions from inland Chinese launch bases.

The launch video showed the Long March 5B arcing toward the southeast from Wenchang into a clear later afternoon sky.

The Long March 5B’s two hydrogen-fueled YF-77 core stage engines and eight kerosene-burning booster engines — with two engines mounted on four strap-on booster modules — powered the more than 900-ton launch vehicle off the pad with nearly 2.4 million pounds of thrust.

The rocket jettisoned its four boosters around three minutes into the flight, and the Long March 5B’s core stage was programmed to fire for around eight minutes before deploying China’s prototype crew capsule in orbit.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., or CASC, confirmed the Long March 5B placed the capsule payload into its “predetermined orbit” minutes after lifting off from Wenchang.

The Long March 5B rocket is a new version of the Long March 5 launcher, China’s most powerful rocket. Designed to loft massive payloads into low Earth orbit, the Long March 5B rocket flies without a second stage, and stands a bit shorter than the full-size Long March 5 configuration.

The launcher’s lift capability to low Earth orbit is around 55,000 pounds, or 25 metric tons, according to Chinese state media. The Long March 5B version — using a “stage-and-a-half” launch architecture — is tailored to launch large modules for China’s planned space station.

Tuesday’s launch of the Long March 5B rocket also debuted a new large payload fairing measuring more than 67 feet (20.5 meters) long and 17 feet (5.2 meters) in diameter. The payload launched inside the Long March 5B’s new nose shroud is a demonstration vehicle for China’s next-generation crew capsule, designed to eventually replace the country’s Shenzhou spacecraft to ferry astronauts to a space station in Earth orbit.

The new capsule design is more capable than the Shenzhou, according to Chinese officials. It will be capable of carrying astronauts to the moon, and can accommodate up to six crew members at a time, more than the three astronauts that can fly on the Shenzhou, Chinese officials said.

In a different configuration, the crew capsule could launch and land with three astronauts, plus up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of cargo, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The capability will allow China to return research specimens and hardware from the country’s space station back to Earth.

The short-duration orbital test flight this week is expected to conclude with a re-entry and landing in remote northwestern China, perhaps as soon as Wednesday. Few details about the test flight have been released by the Chinese government.

The Shenzhou crew craft can return only a limited amount of cargo, and China’s Tianzhou supply ship for the country’s planned space station is not designed to bring any cargo back to Earth.

China’s next-generation crew carrier is also reusable for up to 10 flights, with a detachable heat shield built to handle higher-temperature returns through Earth’s atmosphere, such as those a capsule would encounter on a re-entry from a lunar mission.

The Xinhua news agency reported the primary purpose of the crew capsule test flight is to verify the ship’s re-entry technologies, such as its heat shield and recovery system. The capsule will return under parachutes and inflate airbags to cushion its landing on solid ground.

The Shenzhou landing module also returns under parachutes, but uses rocket thrusters to soften the blow of landing. That makes for a rougher ride for passengers.

With its propulsion and power module, the crew spacecraft measures nearly 29 feet (8.8 meters) long. It will weigh around 47,600 pounds (21.6 metric tons) fully loaded with equipment and propellant, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, or CMSEO.

Chinese officials said earlier this year that the crew capsule on the Long March 5B test flight will be loaded with 10 metric tons (22,000 pounds) of propellant, enabling extensive maneuvers in orbit. The fuel load will also match the spacecraft’s weight to the expected launch weight of the Tianhe core module for China’s space station, which is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

China launched a reduced-scale crew module on an unpiloted test flight in 2016.

Teams at the Wenchang launch base prepared the Long March 5B rocket and the prototype crew capsule for flight amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese state media said managers reduced staffing levels at the spaceport, and introduced telecommuting capabilities to allow some team members to participate in data reviews and meetings remotely.

China has conducted six space missions with astronauts since 2003. The most recent Shenzhou mission ended in November 2016 after a 32-day flight to the Chinese Tiangong 2 space lab with a two-man crew.

Plans to launch China’s first Mars rover later this year could depend on the success of this week’s Long March 5B launch. A Long March 5 rocket — in its previous configuration with an upper stage — is scheduled to launch the robotic Mars mission in July.

Chinese officials last month announced the Mars mission will be named Tianwen 1. Tianwen, or Questions to Heaven, is a poem written by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. The China National Space Administration — China’s space agency — said all of the country’s future planetary exploration missions will be named the Tianwen series.

Another Long March 5 rocket is scheduled to haul China’s Chang’e 5 robotic lunar mission into space later this year. Chang’e 5 will attempt to retrieve samples from the moon’s surface and return them to Earth.
 

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