A new Chinese carrier rocket made its first flight on Tuesday under a long-term plan to develop reusable launch vehicles aimed at reducing mission costs and speed up launch schedules for commercial clients.
China's new medium-lift carrier rocket Long March-8 made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending five satellites successfully into planned orbit, the country's space agency said.
The rocket was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch
Site in Hainan.
The five experimental satellites will carry out the in-orbit
verification of microwave imaging and other technologies. They will conduct
experiments in space science, remote sensing and communication technologies,
official media reported.
The Long March-8 rocket which has a total length of 50.3
meters, and a take-off mass of 356 tonnes can carry a payload of at least 4.5
tonnes to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km, the China National
Space Administration (CNSA) said. The rocket fills the gap in China's launch
capability to the sun-synchronous orbit from 3 tonnes to 4.5 tonnes, and is of
great significance for accelerating the upgrading of launch vehicles, it said.
On December 17, China's Chang'e-5 probe successfully
completed the mission to bring home the first samples of the moon in over 40
years.
A major space power, China launched its first Mars mission
‘Tianwen-1' on July 23 this year. The Mars spacecraft which included an
orbiter, lander and rover is on its way to the red planet.
The new rocket, which was developed by the China Academy of
Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), will enrich China's launch vehicle variety
and help expand the country's aerospace activities, state-run Xinhua news
agency reported.
It will promote the upgrading of China's medium-sized launch
vehicles and satisfy the needs of high-density launch missions for medium and
low-orbit satellites Xiao Yun, chief commander of the rocket said.
Song Zhengyu, chief designer of the Long March-8 rocket from
the CALT, said the design of the rocket was based on technologies developed for
previous Long March rockets.
"It will lay a technological foundation for the
development of large and heavy rockets, shortening development periods and
reducing costs," Song said.
The rocket can send one or multiple satellites in a single
launch, and can undertake launch networking missions for low-Earth orbit
satellites, according to Wu Yitian, deputy chief designer of the rocket.