HELSINKI — China’s second Long March 8 rocket launched late Saturday carrying a home record 22 satellites for a variety of commercial Chinese house corporations.
The Long March 8 lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 10:06 p.m. Eastern Feb. 26, with the China (*22*) Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) later confirming launch success.
The second Long March 8 flew with out the pair of facet boosters used within the rocket’s first mission again in December 2020. It has a size of fifty.3 meters lengthy and a mass at takeoff of 356 tons.
The Long March 8 has been slated for check improvement of vertical takeoff, vertical touchdown, throughout which facet boosters would stay connected to the primary stage. Saturday’s mission was expendable, launching over the ocean from Hainan island.
The Long March 8 combines the three.35-meter-diameter new-generation Long March 7 kerosene-liquid oxygen first stage with a 3-meter-diameter hydrolox second stage from the older Long March 3A sequence.
“To put it simply, we have hammered out a ‘carpooling’ solution to launch many small satellites in one successful launch mission,” Xiao Yun, chief commander of the Long March 8 rocket program, informed CCTV.
The China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), a subsidiary of CASC, launched the primary “Long March Express” rideshare utilizing a Long March 6 in April 2021. Quite a few contracts for the brand new rideshare have been signed on the Zhuhai Airshow in late September.
The payloads on the Long March 8 concerned seven producers with finish customers together with seven commercial corporations and two analysis institutes.
Changguang Satellite Technology, a Changchun-based distant sensing constellation operator and spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ CIOMP, launched 10 new Jilin-1 satellites for its constellation of distant sensing satellites of the identical title.
These have been the Jilin-1 GF03D10-18 satellites, with GF standing for “Gaofen” or excessive decision, with every of the eight satellites having a mass of round 43 kilograms. Jilin-1 MF02A01 is a 32-kilogram multi-functional satellite tv for pc to check a brand new platform. Quite a few the satellites additionally carry secondary names by sponsorships.
Small satellite tv for pc maker Minospace manufactured 5 satellites aboard the mission. Two of those have been the Taijing-3 (01) 240-kilogram optical and Taijing-4 (01) 250-kilogram artificial aperture radar (SAR) satellites which shall be operated by Minospace.
The agency additionally made the Wenchang-1 (01) and (02) wide-field multispectral satellites for the Sanya Institute of Remote Sensing and Hainan Westar Remote Sensing Technology Application Service respectively, every with a mass of 62.5 kilograms. The Xidian-1 hyperspectral distant sensing satellite tv for pc is for the brand new Silk Road Tiantu constellation and operated by Shaanxi Silk Road Tiantu Satellite Technology.
Changsha-based commercial spacecraft maker and constellation operator Spacety launched the Chaohu-1 satellite tv for pc, the primary of the deliberate Tianxian SAR constellation in cooperation with the China Electronics Technology Group (CETC). The 325-kilogram satellite tv for pc builds on the Hisea-1 SAR satellite tv for pc launched on the earlier Long March 8 flight.
Spacety additionally had the 14-kilogram Thor Smart Satellite on the mission. The satellite tv for pc carries a distributed software program protocol check payloads and three GRID gamma ray burst detectors and the Aurora-2 X-ray polarimeter.
Tianqi-19 was manufactured by Shandong Institute of (*22*) Electronics Technology for Guodian Gaoke and its Tianqi low-Earth orbit narrow-band Internet of Things constellation.
The roughly 60-kilogram Hainan-1 (01) and (02) satellites have been developed by Shenzhen (*22*) Dongfanghong Satellite, finally beneath the possession of CASC, for Hainan Westar Remote Sensing Technology Application Service. The satellites carry imagers and computerized identification system (AIS) receivers for maritime surveillance.
Star Era-17 (Xingshidai-17), additionally known as “Dayun”, the Chinese title for the Universiade worldwide sports activities occasion to be held this yr in Chengdu, is a 20-kilogram satellite tv for pc carrying seen mild and thermal infrared imagers and (*8*) developed and operated by ADA Space, primarily based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, southwest China. The agency raised $55.6 million in Series B spherical late final yr for its AI satellite tv for pc constellation plans.
Finally, the Phospherus-1 22-kilogram optical satellite tv for pc was developed by Wuhan University for hyperspectral imaging.
Earlier on Saturday China launched the L-SAR 01B satellite tv for pc on a Long March 4C, sending the artificial aperture radar satellite tv for pc to function in formation with the L-SAR 01A satellite tv for pc launched in January.
The hypergolic rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 6:44 p.m. Eastern Feb. 26, CASC confirmed.
The launches have been China’s third and fourth orbital missions of 2022 and the primary following an prolonged break for the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Main house contractor CASC is planning to launch greater than 50 instances this yr, with quite a lot of commercial corporations additionally planning to launch a variety of liquid and strong rockets.
China set a brand new home record of 55 launches in 2021, far surpassing the earlier record of 39 launches performed by China in 2018 and 2020.