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
The Long March 5B/Long March 5B (CZ-5B) is a large cryogenic liquid carrier rocket developed for China’s manned space station project, used to launch the main module of the space station. The rocket adopts a one-and-a-half-stage series-parallel configuration, consisting of a core stage and four boosters. It is China’s first one-and-a-half-stage configuration rocket.
The Long March 5B rocket is 53.657 meters long, with a core stage 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, its takeoff thrust is about 1,078 tons, and its low-Earth orbit (LEO) capacity reaches 25 tons. In Asia, the Long March 5B is the rocket with the strongest low-Earth transport capacity in service.
The envelope diameter of the Long March 5B rocket fairing reaches 4.5 meters, and the volume exceeds 345 cubic meters. This is the fairing with the largest diameter, longest length, and largest envelope space in China’s current service, and one of the fairings with the largest envelope space in the world. With large carrying capacity and a “large cargo compartment”, the Long March 5B rocket can also be used with the Yuanzheng 2 upper stage to carry out large-scale multi-satellite launches, supporting China’s giant satellite constellation network. Once launched, the Long March 5B rocket will become the world’s most powerful carrier rocket for giant constellation network launches
It is expected that on the evening of December 15th to 16th, at the 101 launch site at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China, the Long March 5B Yao-6 carrier rocket/Expedition 2 Yao-2 upper stage will carry out a large-scale multi-satellite launch mission, planning to send the satellites on board into low-Earth orbit.
The payload of this mission comes from the China Star Network Project, which is the China Star Network Low Orbit 01 Group Satellite. China Star Network (SatNet) is a giant satellite constellation in China, including low-orbit and high-orbit satellites, and plans to launch 12,992 satellites. The main body of the China Star Network Low Orbit 01 Group Satellite adopts a trapezoidal design, and its appearance is similar to that of the “One Network” constellation satellite. The constellation satellite using this design needs to be launched using a side-mounted launch based on a central load-bearing cylinder.
This launch mission will be the fifth launch of the Long March 5B carrier rocket and the 13th launch of the Long March 5 series of rockets. At the same time, this launch will also be the first time that the rocket has carried out an unmanned space launch mission, which will provide a very scarce large carrying capacity for constellation networking.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration