Ambitious China is Ambitious!
...but there is bound to be a few failures.
China has successfully launched its first Long March-5 rocket, a heavy lifter that is going to be pivotal to the Middle Kingdom's ambitions for a space industry of its own. The rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province at 2043 local time, Thursday, and delivered its payload into …
What do we notice this month, Long March 5 launch of up to 25 tons to orbit, Shenzou 11 visits Tiangong 2 space lab, for a month, finishing touches being put on space tug freighter, to be launched on a Long March 7, with 12 tons to orbit capacity, in readiness for it's mission to Tiangong 2. Tiangong 3 Core Module, of the Chinese long term space station, being readied for it's launch, in 2018 aboard the Long March 5, Orion US deep space capsule, according to some, flight delayed till 2023. China progressing on its 6 crew capsule, Long March 9, with 100 ton payload scheduled for 2030, the Chinese already having tested an engine with enough thrust for LM9, of course you don't need an Apollo scale launcher, to orbit the Moon.
Remember the panic, that the Russians, could orbit the Moon, before the US, leading to Apollo 8, their Progress launcher could have done it, if the Chinese were to launch 2 LM 5's, they've shown they can rapidly dual launch, with 2 launchers, on seperate launch pads. Then, they wouldn't even need to dock at the long term space station. With the crewed section, to wait for the trans lunar orbit insertion section and dock with it on orbit, remember they don't have the weight, of the lander to haul, so it's possible, that the first humans to orbit the Moon, in more than half a century, could be Chinese.
First of all, kudos China!
Yes, they got their bird away with no problems so well done, China.
But... hasn't the game changed a bit? Today, it's not about infrequent, very expensive launches any more. With SpaceX making history, it's becoming all about reuse & rapid turnaround and, much as China's space program deserves praise for its hard work, there's no sign that they've moved with the (SpaceX) times.
Any word on what the payload is?
Shijian 17, an electric propulsion demonstrator and its "Yuanzheng space tug." (I think that's a third stage but the Chinese don't count it as part of the launcher. So, "space tug.")
I'll raise a pint to this success. I have always loved space exploration, as I grew up in the Apollo era. After that programme ended, some of the excitement went out of it (although the Shuttle brought back some of that). The current competitive climate in space flight is great. May the best engineering team win
The rocket is just bog standard old hat tech, sod that.
Hidden and not really stated in the reports are Electric propulsion device that's on board. The Chinese are going to test an EM drive in space.
Since even NASA thinks this works, getting EM drives in space working means you can go anywhere, quickly. At 1G acceleration the moon is less than 2 hours away. Electricity isn't a problem in space, making thrust for long periods is.
How does it work? Is it an ion drive? Does it push against the solar wind? Or is the "EM drive" that "NASA is testing"? (In which case, failure awaits at 99.999% likelihood)
> At 1G acceleration the moon is less than 2 hours away.
You ain't gonna get 1G acceleration for 2h no matter what.