At morning 10th December 2024 Beijing time CNSA –China National Space Administration, the Long March 5B Yao-6 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, China, People’s Republic of China., On the morning of December 10, 2024 Beijing time, the “Long March 5B” Yao-6 carrier rocket and satellite assembly were vertically transferred from the vertical assembly and test plant to the launch tower on a mobile launch platform, and the launch mission preparations entered the final stage
Asia’s most powerful near-Earth rocket takes off with a bang, with the upper stage sending a giant constellation networking satellite directly into orbit…
At 18:00 Beijing time on December 16, 2024, at the 101 launch site of the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the northeast of Hainan Island, China, a space launch system consisting of the Long March 5B Yao-6 carrier rocket and the Yuan Zheng-2 Yao-2 upper stage was launched, sending the 10 satellites of the China Star Network Low Orbit 01 Group directly into low-Earth orbit.
The China Star Network Low Orbit 01 satellite group was developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It is the first batch of low-orbit networking satellites of China Star Network. The main body adopts a trapezoidal design and is equipped with a pair of solar wings. Constellation satellites using this design usually need to be launched using a side-mounted launch based on a central bearing cylinder. In November 2024, this batch of satellites arrived at the Wenchang Space Launch Center.
China Star Network is a giant satellite constellation under the China Star Network project, consisting of two types of satellites, low-orbit and high-orbit, with a plan to launch 12,992 satellites. State Grid’s low-orbit satellites are divided into two parts: GW-A59 constellation with 6,080 satellites, distributed in low-Earth orbit below 500 kilometers, and GW-A2 constellation with 6,912 satellites, distributed in low-Earth orbit of 1,145 kilometers. According to the original plan, China Star Network will launch about 10% of the satellites (about 1,300 satellites) in the next five years and complete the launch of all satellites by 2035.
The Long March 5B (LM-5B) is a large cryogenic liquid carrier rocket developed by the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It adopts a one-and-a-half-stage configuration, with the core stage and four boosters being bundled together. The core stage is equipped with four high-specific-impulse advanced hydrogen-oxygen engines YF77, with a single sea-level thrust of about 52 tons (510 kN), a vacuum thrust of about 71 tons (700 kN), and a vacuum specific impulse of 430 seconds. Each booster is equipped with two high-thrust liquid oxygen-kerosene engines YF100, with a single sea-level thrust of about 121 tons (1188 kN) and a sea-level specific impulse of 300 second
The Long March 5B rocket is 53.657 meters high, with a core diameter of 5 meters and a booster diameter of 3.35 meters. It is equipped with a large fairing with a diameter of 5.2 meters and a length of 20.5 meters. Its takeoff mass is about 849 tons and its takeoff thrust is about 1,074 tons. Its near-Earth orbit (LEO) capacity with a perigee of 200 kilometers, an apogee of 400 kilometers and an inclination of 19.5 degrees exceeds 25 tons. In Asia, the Long March 5B is the most powerful rocket in service in the near-Earth orbit, followed by the Japanese H3-24L configuration that has not yet flown for the first time, which has a near-Earth orbit capacity of 17.5 tons.
The “Yuanzheng-2” (YZ-2) upper stage is a space transfer vehicle developed by the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and plays the role of the last stage of the rocket. The “Yuanzheng-2” is an upper stage developed for the large rocket “Long March 5”, and is mainly used in combination with the “Long March 5” series of launch vehicles to perform low, medium and high earth orbit direct launch missions.
The Yuanzheng-2 is equipped with two YF-50D engines, using nitrogen tetroxide/undimethylhydrazine room temperature propellants, with a vacuum thrust of about 0.66 tons per engine, a vacuum specific impulse of about 316 seconds, and can be restarted twice. The upper stage has a diameter of 3.8 meters and a working time of more than 6.5 hours. The Yuanzheng-2 is currently China’s largest and most capable liquid-powered upper stage for orbital change, and is known as the “enhanced space shuttle.”
This mission is the first launch of the Long March 5B carrier rocket in 2024, the eighth launch at the Wenchang Launch Center, the 64th launch in China and the 243rd orbital space launch in the world.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration
