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First flight targeted for August: Long March 12 rocket debuts at Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site for joint training

2024-07-16

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IT Home reported on July 16 that the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center officially announced that it has the ability to carry out launches. The launch center is now able to undertake rocket launch business and realize commercial operations. In the second half of this year, the launch center will usher in its first rocket launch.


@曹梦-Aerospace said that the Long March 12 rocket has now arrived at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center and is undergoing joint training, and is scheduled to start its first flight test in August this year.


The Long March 12 carrier rocket is my country's first 3.8-meter-diameter single-core liquid carrier rocket developed by the Eighth Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It has a two-stage configuration, with the first stage using four 1,250-kN thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engines and the second stage using two 180-kN thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engines.

The Long March-12 has a diameter of 3.8 meters, and its fairing comes standard with diameters of 5.2 meters and 4.2 meters. It has a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 10 tons and a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity of 6 tons. It focuses on commercial missions such as low-orbit constellation networking, and can be adapted to multiple sizes for different missions.

It is worth mentioning that this first arrow is a disposable version, but the Eighth Academy has plans for reused models in its 3.8-meter diameter family.


Zeng Wenhua, chief designer of the Long March 12 launch vehicle, said, "The biggest feature of the Long March 12 launch vehicle is that it is the first rocket with a body diameter of 3.8 meters in the Long March family. This is based on the improved development of my country's new generation of main liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, the YF-100 series, and the maximum envelope boundary constraints of my country's railway transportation capacity. After repeated demonstration and research, as well as a large number of transportation tests with the railway department, it can be transported to various launch sites in my country by rail, and can achieve the best adaptation between the body diameter and the number of engines, realizing capability expansion and one rocket for universal use, and laying the foundation for future reusable rockets."

Experts from the Eighth Academy of Aerospace said that the Long March-12 carrier rocket inherits the efficient single-core stage tandem configuration of the current Long March series rockets. It is simple, reliable, and has good mission versatility. It has improved the ability to enter sun-synchronous orbit and low-orbit multi-constellation networking capabilities, further improved and broadened the spectrum of my country's new generation of carrier rockets, and contributed to the high-quality development of my country's space transportation system. It has taken the carrying capacity of single-core stage liquid rockets and the large fairing envelope to a new level.