China's Long March-5 rocket to resume flight in July - Xinhua

[LKJ86]

China's Long March-5 rocket to resume flight in July
Source: Xinhua | 2019-01-29 20:10:47 |

BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its third Long March-5 large carrier rocket in July, said Yang Baohua, vice president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on Tuesday.

The second Long March-5 rocket was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern province of Hainan on July 2, 2017, but a malfunction happened less than six minutes after its liftoff.

Yang said at a press conference of the CASC that the cause of the failure has been found.

Analysis based on computer simulations and ground tests showed that a problem occurred in a turbine exhaust device in the engine of the first stage of the rocket, the China National Space Administration said earlier last year.

The Long March-5 rocket will be the key for China's future space missions, said Shang Zhi, director of the Department of Space under CASC.

If the third flight is successful, the fourth Long March-5 carrier rocket will be tasked to send the Chang'e-5 lunar probe to the moon to bring lunar samples back to Earth at the end of 2019, according to Yang.

In addition, a test version of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, which will serve China's manned space exploration mission, is under development, and the research and development of the core module of the country's space station have carried on as planned, said Shang.

The Long March-5B rocket, with a low-Earth orbit with a carrying capacity greater than 22 tonnes, will be used to launch the core module and experiment modules of China's space station in the future.

Joint tests and exercises will be carried out in the Wenchang Space Launch Center at the end of 2019 to make preparations for the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, which will help lay the groundwork for the construction of the space station, Shang said.

Source:http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-01/29/c_137784424.htm

 

[Dante80]

We have been waiting some time for this, really happy to hear that this monster is coming back to the launch pad.

Any more information about the payload for this mission? Reading the launch manifest, it seems like CZ-5 will RTF with the same exact mission (Shijian-20 is essentially a duplicate of the SJ-18 that was lost in the second flight that failed). This shows us that CALT is confident enough about fixing the root cause of the second flight failure for the rocket. And that the fix they made to YF-77 did not really affect the performance of the LV (remember, the Shijian series of sats are enormous, and will be by far the heaviest GSO sats we have ever seen fielded so far).

Fingers crossed for this one too. We really need to get Chang'e 5 out, this mission is extremely important for the continued exploration of the moon by China.

 

[Beast]

So July launch will be what payload?

 

[Dante80]

So July launch will be what payload?

Shijian-20

The flight was first scheduled for last November but slipped. The reason for that though was not the LV, but payload related.

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

This is a heavy lift rocket that will put the moon sample returner on the moon and put a rover on Mars.

 

[TaiShang]

China unveils more details about Chang'e-5 probe

Xinhua, January 30, 2019

China unveils on Tuesday more details about the Chang'e-5 probe, which will undergo multiple flight phases before the mission is completed.

The probe, to be launched by the end of this year, will enter the Earth-moon transfer orbit. It will slow near the moon to enter the lunar orbit and descend and land on a pre-selected area for ground research work, including collecting lunar samples, said Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of the probe from the China Academy of Space Technology, at a press conference.

After finishing its work on the moon, the ascender will rise from the lunar surface for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter flying around the moon. Then the returner will fly back to Earth via the Earth-moon transfer orbit, reenter the atmosphere and land at the Siziwang Banner (County) of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Peng said.

The lunar samples taken back by the Chang'e-5 probe will be sealed in a container and sent to labs for further analysis and research, he added.

The probe can be divided into 15 sub-systems, including structure, thermal control, antenna, sample collecting and sealing and propulsion. It is composed of an orbiter, a returner, a lander and an ascender.

The Chang'e-5 probe will be launched from Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern Hainan Province.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2019-01/30/content_74423593.htm

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

Best Wishes for the launch.

 

[Darwin]

Exciting. Hope they transmit the launch live. Chinese should not fear problems which occur in any new project. No one will be hanged if issues occur.

 

[LKJ86]

 

[Beast]

Exciting. Hope they transmit the launch live. Chinese should not fear problems which occur in any new project. No one will be hanged if issues occur.

The scientist will hang for sure if failed. I doubt it will be live telecast.

 

[Han Patriot]

Exciting. Hope they transmit the launch live. Chinese should not fear problems which occur in any new project. No one will be hanged if issues occur.

Unlike India, we actually do punish people who fail. It's accountability. Indians will still boast even if their things fail, example the PSLV, Chinese will normally feel ashamed and try to improve. You can see this in Japanese and Korean culture as well.

 

[Darwin]

Unlike India, we actually do punish people who fail. It's accountability. Indians will still boast even if their things fail, example the PSLV, Chinese will normally feel ashamed and try to improve. You can see this in Japanese and Korean culture as well.

When you try to make new things with your own effort,, failure is part of the learning curve.
But I can understand if all the design and drawings have been "procured" than tolerance for failure is low.

 

[Han Patriot]

When you try to make new things with your own effort,, failure is part of the learning curve.
But I can understand if all the design and drawings have been "procured" than tolerance for failure is low.

Actually Darwin, can you show me how this is procured? Last I heard the cryogenic Indians are using is from Russia?. If it's procured, we can blame the failure on the others like how Indians blame the Russians for everything right? Indians have a lot of tolerance, we call this thick skin, you would have an orgasm if you had what we have now.

 

[Darwin]

Actually Darwin, can you show me how this is procured? Last I heard the cryogenic Indians are using is from Russia?.

I don't want to divert from the topic but India did openly buy around 8 cryogenic engines in the 90s from Russia after USA blocked the technology transfer of cryogenic engines, when American tech was rejected. Subsequently India has successfully launched quite a a few mark 2 and mark3 variants of gslv with Indigenous cryo engines.
I am talking about Chinese failures of the initial 2 launches, which as a engineer don't surprise me, after all its rocket science and new tech is hard to steal. Irrespective of the result telecast should be live.

 

[Han Patriot]

I don't want to divert from the topic but India did openly buy around 8 cryogenic engines in the 90s from Russia after USA blocked the technology transfer of cryogenic engines, when American tech was rejected. Subsequently India has successfully launched quite a a few mark 2 and mark3 variants of gslv with Indigenous cryo engines.
I am talking about Chinese failures of the initial 2 launches, which as a engineer don't surprise me, after all its rocket science and new tech is hard to steal. Irrespective of the result telecast should be live.

I don't care about GSLV, a rocket with capabilities we had for 25 years. There is only one failure? Since when there were 2?