Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site's First Rocket Launch and the Long March 12 Rocket
TapTechNews October 8th news, Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site announced that it has the ability to execute launch missions, and the launch site can now undertake rocket launch business and realize commercial operation. In the second half of this year, the launch site will迎来 its first rocket launch.
Hainan International Commercial Space Launch Co., Ltd. issued a document today, announcing that the Long March 12 rocket was transferred to the No. 2 launch pad in the launch area for a combined drill at 8:30 am today, including processes such as oxygen-nitrogen filling, kerosene filling, liquid hydrogen pre-cooling, and large-flow filling.
Hainan Commercial Launch said that every step in this combined drill was strictly implemented according to the plan, and the real medium flowed smoothly from each storage area to the end valve of the No. 1 launch pad and returned, thereby truly simulating every detail of the actual launch and successfully completing the entire real medium commissioning work. During the commissioning, the three key systems of kerosene, oxygen-nitrogen, and liquid hydrogen participated collaboratively, fully demonstrating the efficient collaborative ability of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site in the multi-system parallel operation of filling and gas supply.
According to TapTechNews' inquiry, the Long March 12 launch vehicle is the first 3.8-meter diameter single-core stage liquid launch vehicle in China developed by the Eighth Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, with a two-stage configuration. The first stage uses four liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a thrust of 1250 kilonewtons, and the second stage uses two liquid oxygen/kerosene engines with a thrust of 180 kilonewtons.
The diameter of the Long March 12 is up to 3.8 meters, and the fairing is standardly equipped with diameters of 5.2 meters and 4.2 meters. Its near-Earth orbit carrying capacity reaches 10 tons, and the 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity is 6 tons. It mainly focuses on commercial tasks such as low-orbit constellation networking and can be multi-size adapted according to different tasks.
Zeng Wenhua, the chief designer of the overall Long March 12 launch vehicle, introduced, The biggest feature of the Long March 12 launch vehicle is that it is the first to create a 3.8-meter arrow body diameter in the Long March family. This is based on the improved research and development situation of China's new-generation main liquid oxygen/kerosene engine YF-100 series, and under the constraint of the maximum envelope boundary of China's railway transportation capacity. After repeated demonstration and research, as well as a large number of transportation tests with the railway department, it can be transported by railway to various launch sites in China, and can also achieve the best adaptation between the arrow body diameter and the number of engines, achieve capacity expansion and one-arrow for general use, and lay the foundation for future reusable rockets.
Experts from the Eighth Institute of Aerospace said that the Long March 12 launch vehicle inherits the efficient single-core stage tandem configuration of the existing Long March series rockets, which is simple, reliable, and has good task versatility, improving the sun-synchronous orbit insertion capacity and the low-orbit multi-constellation networking ability, further improving and broadening the spectrum of China's new-generation launch vehicles, and helping the high-quality development of China's aerospace transportation system, raising the single-core stage liquid rocket carrying capacity and the large fairing envelope to a new level.