Tianlong-3, Long March 8, and Hainan Commercial Launch News
This post was originally published on March 22nd 2024.
The past few days have been jam-packed for space developments from China. Most of the news came out after the launch of Queqiao-2, so let's run through them!
Long March 8 News
First up is one you've likely already seen online thanks to Wu Lei's great work, the Long March 8 ramping up to fifty launches in the near future.
Song Zhengyu, Chief Designer of the Long March 8 launch vehicles, said that the Long March 8 will utilize its two launch pads to perform a mission every seven days. These two pads are Launch Complex 2 and Commercial Launch Pad 1. Each pad would have a rocket liftoff once every two weeks.
Song Zhengyu did acknowledge, but did not say explicitly, that the limiting factor is the production facilities for the Long March 8. The timing of this announcement came shortly after a progress update on Hainan's 10,000-square-meter rocket production facility, more on this later in the article.
Song Zhengyu also said that there are six more launches of the Long March 8 launch vehicles planned for this year with some using the 'modified model'. The 'modified model' is highly likely to be the Long March 8G which has a wider upper-stage, going from 3 meters to 3.35 meters in diameter.
The wider liquid hydrogen-oxygen upper-stage is being developed for two reasons. The first reason is to increase the launch vehicles' performance to geostationary transfer and sun-synchronus orbits. The other reason for the new upper-stage is due to the current stage being inherited from the Long March 3 series and having older and outdated manufacturing techniques.
A new 5.2-meter diameter fairing is also in the works for the new version as the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology tries to position the Long March 8 as a commercially viable vehicle.
It's unclear if the 'core-alone' Long March 8A will continue to fly with the new upper-stage, it likely will if there is demand due to how light hydrogen is as a fuel.
Hainan Rocket Production News
Hainan Commercial Development shared on the 20th of March that construction work on the 10,000 square meter rocket production facility was progress with work not slowing down.
Project managers shared that the spring festivals did not slow down the construction efforts. Hainan Commercial Development stated that the facility will be completed by the end of June of this year.
It was also shared that the facility will be capable of supporting testing and final assembly of two rockets at the same time. This likely allows for a shorter amount of testing required on the launch pad and inside the vehicle assembly buildings at the Wenchang Space Launch Site. The production building can likely assemble more than two rockets at a time but a figure on that was not shared.
Tianlong-3 News
On the 21st, Space Pioneer shared that it was still targetting a debut flight of its Tianlong-3 launch vehicle in July despite rumors of a delay towards the end of the year.
This came with confirmation that the nine engines for the first-stage engines of the rocket had passed testing and were shipped for final assembly ahead of launch.
Each test reportedly ran for fifty seconds as these are verification firings and not for engine development. The purpose of the firings was to assess the production of the TH-12 engines according to Space Pioneer.
The nine TH-12 engines will power the first-stage of the Tianlong-3 for a believed 770 tons of thrust, each engine will generate 85 tons of thrust. This increase in engines is relatively new with Space Pioneer still saying each engine produces 110 tons of thrust. This may be due to the engines being rater for a higher thrust than they are planned to perform at for easier reuse, as less stress will be on the components inside the engine.
A day later, Space Pioneer also shared that it had completed its first production fairing for the Tianlong-3.
The faring is reportedly made of carbon composites and is 4.2 meters in diameter and 13 meters long. This fairing is the largest known commercial launch vehicle fairing in China, as of writing, with Space Pioneer claiming it is tailored for the country's space-based internet constellation plans.
Both the successful fairing and engine production tests has made Space Pioneer confident in their ability to mass produce the Tianlong-3 with plans for thirty launches in 2025 as a semi-aspirational goal.
With Space Pioneer aiming for a July debut and Commercial Launch Pad 2 at Wenchang aiming to enter operation in the same month Tianlong-3 will likely be the first vehicle to fly from the launchpad.
Tianlong-3 is 71 meters tall and 3.8 meters in diameter, as well as weighing 590,000 kilograms fully fuelled. The claimed lift capacity of the launch vehicle is 17,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit or 14,000 kilograms to sun-synchronus orbit. Reuse is also planned for the rocket with the potential landing attempt on the first flight. Space Pioneer has been somewhat unclear on its reuse progress with the Tianlong-3 launch vehicle however.