深蓝航天 Deep Blue Limited – Deep Blue Aerospace Landspace 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…..
This afternoon on the 19th January 2024, Beijing time, the Landspace – Blue Arrow Aerospace Zhuque 3 VTVL-1 reusable vertical take-off and landing verification rocket conducted its first flight test today at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, People’s Republic of China. The flight lasted about 60 seconds and the flight altitude was about 350 meters.
During 16:00 Beijing Time on January 19th , 2024, the Zhuque-3 VTVL-1 reusable vertical takeoff and landing recovery verification rocket (hereinafter referred to as the “VTVL-1 test rocket”) independently developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace was ignited and launched into space at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in my country. . The flight time of this test was about 60 seconds, the flight height was about 350m, and the landing position accuracy was about 2.4m. The rocket landed smoothly, the landing point was accurate, and it was in good condition. The test mission was a complete success!
China, People’s Republic of China’s first stainless steel rocket – LandSpace Blue Arrow Aerospace’s reusable liquid oxygen methane rocket Zhuque 3!
🔷The Zhuque-3 reusable liquid oxygen methane launch vehicle is the latest product in the Blue Arrow space launch vehicle series. The diameter of the rocket body is 4.5m, the fairing diameter is 5.2m, the total length of the rocket is 76.6m, the take-off mass is about 660t, and the take-off thrust is about 900t.
🔷The power system adopts the Tianque series liquid oxygen methane engines independently developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace. Among them, the first sub-stage is equipped with 9 Tianque 12B (TQ-12B) engines with a sea level thrust of 1000kN; the second sub-stage is equipped with 1 TQ-12B engine with a vacuum thrust of 1183kN. Magpie 15B (TQ-15B) vacuum engine has a vacuum specific impulse of 3500m/s.
🔷Considering that the first stage can be reused, the entire arrow is equipped with 4 sets of retractable grid rudders as aerodynamic control surfaces for attitude adjustment and landing point control of the aerodynamic deceleration section of the first stage; landing legs are installed on the tail to achieve a Vertical landing during sub-stage recovery.
🔷The first sub-stage of Zhuque 3 is designed to be reused no less than 20 times. The low-orbit carrying capacity for one-time missions can reach 21.3t, and the recovery mission in the navigation area is 18.3t. It has the capability of multiple satellites with one arrow and flat-plate stacking satellite group shooting. The capability fully covers the launch needs of most payloads on the market such as LEO, SSO, GTO and other different orbits. After being put into commercial operation, it will greatly improve the networking efficiency of satellite Internet constellations.
🔷The Zhuque-3 rocket is China’s first stainless steel liquid launch vehicle, which can significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of the rocket and shorten the production cycle. Its high temperature resistance has obvious advantages in the rocket’s multiple returns and reuse. In addition, due to the low cost of liquid oxygen methane, the methane engine’s non-carbon deposits, easy maintenance, and full life cycle monitoring properties, the first-stage engine of the Suzaku-3 rocket can be inspected without lowering the arrow after the rocket is recovered, and can be refilled after refueling. flight, achieving true flight operations, and the launch cost can be reduced by 80-90% compared with disposable rockets. (Landspace – Blue Arrow Aerospace)
Images and visuals are from their Respectives.