China new Long March rocket to increase 2.5 times in payload capacity

William Atkins
Monday, 18 June 2007 19:30

Science - Space

Microsoft Office 365

Commemorating the one-hundredth launch of the Long March series of rockets, China made the announcement during a Beijing symposium of its state-run China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. This advancement in rocket technology will make China well positioned to deliver heavy-duty payloads into space for both its customers and itself.

The 100th launch of a payload with a Long March rocket occurred on June 1, 2007, when the SinoSat-3 communications satellite was launched from a Long March-3A rocket. The satellite will be used for radio and television broadcasting.

Already, the fledgling space-faring country launched its first manned space mission in 2003, making it the third country (behind U.S.S.R. (now Russia) and U.S.) to launch humans into space. Taikonaut (Chinese astronaut) and former fighter pilot Yang Liwei was launched at 9:00 a.m. local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday, October 15, 2003, aboard the Shenzhou V spacecraft from the Jiuquan launch site in China’s western Gobi Desert. He orbited the Earth 14 times before piloting his spacecraft back to a safe landing on the Earth’s surface at 6:28 a.m. (22:28 GMT) that same day.

In 2005, China placed two of its astronauts in orbit about the Earth for a seven-day mission in space. Long-term, the country is working toward sending a manned mission to the Moon within ten to fifteen years.

This next-generation Long March rocket now has the capacity to deliver components to a Chinese space station, with Chinese space officials already talking about such plans in the not-so-distant future. The new rocket also advances China for its quest of its manned missions to the Moon.

More information on the Chinese space program is found at: http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/lonmarch.htm.