深蓝航天 Deep Blue Limited – Deep Blue Aerospace One of sixty Chinese private space Carrier Rocket Companies in China-People’s Republic of China… As many of sixty plus Private Rocket Deep Blue Aerospace Co., Ltd. was established in 2017. The company is mainly a high-tech aerospace enterprise that focuses on the direction of liquid recovery and reusable launch vehicles and provides users with commercial launch services. Deep Blue Aerospace Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province. At the same time, the company has rocket general and liquid engine R&D centers in Yizhuang, Beijing and Xi’an, Shaanxi, respectively, and a rocket power system test base in Tongchuan, Shaanxi…..
On May 6, 2022, the “Nebula-M” test rocket independently developed by DeepBlue Aerospace completed a 1-kilometer vertical take-off and landing flight test. It has climbed to a new height and is a solid step closer to the successful realization of orbit and recovery
Deep Blue Aerospace’s third-hand “Nebula-M” rocket completes the flight recovery mission
On May 6, 2022, the “Nebula-M” No. 1 test rocket independently developed by DeepBlue Aerospace completed a 1-kilometer vertical take-off and landing (VTVL) flight test, and the rocket moved laterally during the process of climbing and falling. , and finally landed to a point less than 0.5 meters from the “bull’s eye” position of the landing site, and the “Nebula-M” test arrow was successfully recovered.
The arrow body used in this Kilometer-level test is still the “Nebula-M” No. 1 test arrow, which has performed 3 flight missions and 7 ground static ignitions, truly realizing the recyclability and reuse of liquid launch vehicles ; its The equipped “Thunder-5” engine is the first needle-bolt-type liquid oxygen kerosene engine to be manufactured using 3D printing technology in China. The completion of this mission announced that Deep Blue Aerospace has climbed to a new height in the history of China’s reusable and reusable rockets, and has taken a solid step towards the successful realization of orbit and recovery.
From July to October 2021, the “Nebula-M” test rocket has successively completed the 10-meter and 100-meter VTVL vertical recovery flight tests, achieving two zero breakthroughs in domestic liquid oxygen and kerosene rockets. In May 2022, the same rocket once again refreshed a new test height. Deep Blue Aerospace has become the fastest Chinese commercial aerospace company in the world outside the United States to develop and recycle rockets.
This kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test marks that Deep Blue Aerospace achieved the same level of test results achieved in 2012-2013 with 8 launch tests in more than a year in only 10 months and 3 launch tests. Deep Blue Aerospace has become the second company in the world to complete all low-altitude engineering tests for vertical recovery and reuse of liquid oxygen and kerosene rockets (the first being SpaceX in the United States).
Kilometer -level VTVL vertical recovery flight test broke many domestic records…
The “Nebula-M” kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test has four technical highlights:
Significant reduction in flight test costs
Under the premise of realizing the vertical recovery of the full arrow, the cost of re-flying the mission is only about 1% of the cost of the production and manufacturing of the arrow body, including the replacement of some wear and tear parts, the test and maintenance cost of the whole arrow, and the propellant cost;
Longer working time for a single ignition
Compared with the 100-meter-level test, the kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test has greatly improved the working time of a single ignition of the engine, which is closer to the working time of a single-stage engine of an orbiting rocket. Different from the state of the ground test, this time the stability of the large-scale thrust change and long-range work of the engine is assessed in the real flight environment, which has more authenticity and practical significance in engineering development;
Application of Lateral Guidance Algorithm
In this kilometer-level test, during the vertical takeoff-vertical landing flight process, a lateral guidance algorithm was added, the coordinates of the target point were pre-booked, and the computer on the rocket carried out calculation and planning, issued lateral guidance commands, and guided the rocket to the target coordinates. Transverse, carry out the verification of the rocket’s off-site return and recovery technology, and carry out preliminary technical verification for the off-site return and reuse of the rockets entering orbit, and intercontinental travel, etc.;
Breakthroughs in multiple coefficients of the kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test
In this kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test, the flight speed reached 0.2Ma and the flight altitude reached 1 km. This is the vertical recovery flight test with the highest flight altitude, fastest flight speed and longest flight time in China.
Through this flight test, the aerodynamic problems of the rocket body in the vertical recovery process of the rocket, as well as the long-term mechanical heat and vibration environment adaptability, the engine’s long-term and large-scale thrust change ability, and the reusable arrow are further verified. Key core technologies such as body structure and landing buffer device, lateral guidance and attitude control capabilities have laid a solid foundation for the subsequent 10-kilometer-level vertical recovery and orbit-level recovery.
Huo Liang, CEO of Deep Blue
The success of Deep Blue Aerospace’s “Nebula-M” rocket kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test also announced that the low-altitude recovery stage has come to a successful end, and the “Nebula-M” 1 test rocket has successfully completed its historical mission. In the next stage, Deep Blue Aerospace will use the same full-scale test rocket as the orbiting rocket to continue the high-altitude recovery test stage (similar to the recovery test carried out by SpaceX’s second stage using the full-scale prototype “Falcon 9 R”), It will make rapid breakthroughs towards the height of 10km and 100km, and finally realize the controllable recovery and reuse of the first sub-stage of the orbiting rocket.
China Aerospace Complements Commercially Recyclable Launch Vehicles
In 2021, the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations (Vienna) submitted a note verbale to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and released information that the satellites launched by the US Starlink plan had approached the Chinese space station twice, and this behavior had a negative impact on the life and health of the astronauts built by the Chinese space station. threaten. For safety reasons, the Chinese space station complex has implemented two “emergency collision avoidance” measures against the relevant US satellites. However, the key to these problems is that the number of satellite launches planned by Starlink far exceeds that of China. As of March 2022, Starlink plans to launch more than 2,000 satellites, and the only way to achieve such a large number of satellite launches is to reduce the launch cost of rockets and increase the frequency of launches to be realized.
Low-cost recyclable rockets have become the only way to develop future launch vehicles. With rapid overhaul, relaunch, successful recovery, and rapid iteration, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 ranks among the world’s rocket echelons. Up to now, SpaceX’s flight data: 95 rocket reuse flights, 118 rocket landings, and the take-off stage of a single carrier rocket can be reused up to 12 times.
On April 16, 2022 From the construction of space infrastructure to the completion and opening of the Beidou global satellite navigation system, from the successful conclusion of the “three-step” lunar exploration project to the “Tianwen-1” crossing the Earth-Moon system to start the Mars exploration journey… Countless brilliant achievements are in It continues to prove that China is making progress towards becoming a “space power”.
As a commercial aerospace enterprise, Deep Blue Aerospace actively responded to the country’s strategic deployment of the aerospace industry, anchored the goal of rocket recycling and reuse, and never wavered or changed the direction of research and development.
Images and visuals are from Deep Blue Aerospace Aspiring to be the promoter of space transportation industry