China launched the second Chang Zheng 8 on Sunday from LC-201 on the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The liftoff occurred at 03:06 UTC and was confirmed successful an hour later.
The mission flew to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) and took quite a lot of payloads to area on a rideshare mission.
The full weight of the payload, together with the adaptor, was 2.6 tons, with the satellites massing 1.7 tons. On this mission, the rideshare included 22 payloads, therefore the identify “One Arrow, 22 Stars”.
Ten of the satellites launched are a part of the Jilin-1 constellation, which began deployment in October 2015. This is a sequence of Earth remark satellites operated by the Chang Guang Satellite Technology Corporation. Previously, the constellation was launched on the Kuaizhou-1A rocket and quite a lot of Chang Zheng household rockets as properly.
The present plan is to extend the dimensions of the constellation to 138 satellites by 2030. This would offer pictures each 10 minutes with resolutions right down to 0.72 meters of an space as much as 11.6 kilometers per satellite. Most of the satellites function in an SSO.
A Hainan satellite, like those launched on the CZ-8 Y2 mission.
Four different payloads on the flight are a set of Hainan satellites that have been constructed by the Shenzhen DFH company and have been designed and overviewed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Academy of Aerospace Information.
The Hainan constellation will embody six electro-optical satellites, two hyperspectral satellites, and two artificial aperture radar (SAR) satellites to watch the South Chinese Sea. They are named after the Chinese island of Hainan, which is able to perform as a management heart for the constellation.
It will assist the Chinese authorities reply quicker to every kind of incidents that occur within the South China Sea. It can even significantly enhance the mapping capabilities of the realm, together with recognizing pure assets.
A single picture can cowl an space of 115 km with a floor decision of 1.55 meters.
The mission additional included the payload “Venstar ” by Wuhan University. Venstar is a “micro-nano satellite” in response to an announcement by the supplier. It handed testing on January 26, 2022, in preparation for launch and is designed to exhibit low value, fast construct, and suppleness. It was primarily constructed by college students of the college underneath the management of Professor Jinguang.
In whole, the mass of the Venstar is 19kg. It encompasses a seen gentle digital camera, an infrared digital camera with the power to provide 32-band hyperspectral pictures, 8-band luminous pictures, and infrared pictures.
And what’s this? CASC proclaims {that a} single stick configuration of the Long March 8 will likely be launched within the first quarter of the 12 months. What this variant is known as, I do not know. Going with a foolish CZ-8SB (sans boosters). https://t.co/07iwxbgmRF
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) January 21, 2022
The Universiade Star Times-17 payload, constructed by National Star Aerospace, was additionally on board and was cleared to launch on January 28. It is a distant sensing Artificial Intelligence satellite that’s detailed goal and mass are unknown.
Chang Zheng 8
This was the second flight of the Chang Zheng 8 (CZ-8) rocket household. The first launch was carried out on December 22, 2020, from Wenchang and was successful. While the primary launch included aspect boosters, this second launch flew a model of the rocket that was beforehand known as Chang Zheng 8A. This signifies that there are not any K2 aspect boosters put in.
The rocket itself is 50.34 meters tall with a diameter of three.35 meters and consists of two phases: the K3 core stage and the second stage that sits on prime. It relies on the design of the Chang Zheng 7 rocket, which makes use of the identical first stage however a unique second stage.
The CZ-8 is powered by two YF-100 engines which burn rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX). The YF-100 will not be solely used on CZ-7 and CZ-8, but in addition on the CZ-5 and CZ-6.
It is a part of the brand new era of Chinese rockets that are now not primarily based on the hypergolic mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (NTO) however as a substitute use typical rocket fuels comparable to liquid hydrogen and RP-1 together with liquid oxygen.
![](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/A56ED798-C0E3-41DC-8F3E-3967EF23C316-scaled.jpeg)
CZ-8 rolling to the pad for the Y2 rideshare mission.
The first stage of the CZ-8 stands 25.083 meters tall with a diameter of three.35 meters. It produces a thrust at liftoff of two,400 kN at sea degree, with a particular impulse of 300 seconds. It offers the vast majority of the elevate out of the dense decrease environment earlier than the second stage takes over and brings the payload into the specified orbit.
This launch didn’t characteristic reusability; nonetheless, the plan for the CZ-8 contains reuse functionality sooner or later.
Reuse of the CZ-8 would characteristic an identical touchdown method to Falcon 9, with propulsive touchdown to save lots of the booster. On the model of the CZ-8 rocket that options aspect boosters, these would keep hooked up for the touchdown.
On prime of the primary stage, the second stage stands 12.375 meters tall with a diameter of three meters. It is much like the higher stage used on the Chang Zheng 3 household and makes use of two YF-75 engines, powered by liquid hydrogen. The engines produce 167 kN of thrust with a particular impulse of 438 seconds.
Compared to the primary launch of the CZ-8, referred to as Y1, the Y2 mission featured a shorter payload fairing.
This is the fourth launch from China this 12 months and likewise the fourth launch of the Chang Zheng rocket household this 12 months. It was additionally the 409th launch of the Chang Zheng sequence.
(Lead picture: CZ-8 lifts off on the Y2 rideshare mission.)