"Tianjin on the Chain" Observation｜Not just "Long March 5" - From rockets to satellites, what you don't know about Tianjin Aerospace
2024-08-25
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"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition! Take off!" At 17:27 on May 3, 2024, the Chang'e-6 probe was launched by the Long March 5 Yao-8 carrier rocket at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China, and then accurately entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit. What many people don't know is that this rocket was manufactured and assembled in Tianjin - Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Manufacturing Co., Ltd., located in the large rocket base in Binhai New Area, has produced carrier rockets that have escorted "Chang'e" to the moon for a long time.
In fact, the "aerospace power" of Tianjin is far more than just the "Long March 5". my country's new generation of carrier rockets and China's space station were both born in Tianjin. From the Airbus assembly line to the UAV industry chain, from the rocket "Long March 5" to the space station, Tianjin is going all out and looking to the sky.
Tianjin is an indispensable part of “Looking up at the sky”
"Whether this tank is assembled well or not depends on the last weld!" With the last weld passing the inspection, the welding workshop of Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Manufacturing Co., Ltd. - Production Group 5 once again successfully welded the upper tank for the new generation of carrier rockets.
On the occasion of this year's Labor Day, Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Manufacturing Co., Ltd.'s welding workshop-production group 5 was awarded the title of "National Worker Pioneer". This is a team of 16 people with an average age of only 29. Although young, this team has already undertaken the task of stirring welding and developing tanks for new generation launch vehicles such as the Long March 5, Long March 7, and Long March 8 series. A series of rocket models shining with honors demonstrate the rich experience of this team.
There is a saying in the aerospace field that the launch of a rocket is supported by the strength of the entire national aerospace industry system. This is true for the country and the city. The manufacturing and assembly of the Long March series of rockets in Tianjin is a microcosm of the city's aerospace track. As the saying goes, "a single flower does not make spring, a hundred flowers in full bloom make spring in the garden." Today, it is no longer a new thing that a spacecraft is supported by the "power of Tianjin." The "cluster advantage" of the aerospace industry in Tianjin has already begun to emerge.
On May 31 this year, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center successfully launched five satellites using the Ceres-1 commercial carrier rocket. In this mission alone, two Tianjin aerospace companies were involved:
The core payloads of the Hebei Linxi-1 satellite, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech satellite and Yunyao-1-26 satellite launched in this mission were all independently developed by Tianjin Yunyao Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.; and the carrier rocket that carried out this mission was supplied with the carrier rocket fairing by Tianjin Aisda Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.
Such a case shows that Tianjin is making gradual progress in the field of aerospace, with excellent enterprises springing up like mushrooms after rain. In other fields related to this "blue sky", Tianjin has also achieved fruitful results.
In recent years, "low-altitude economy" has become a hot word in Tianjin's economic development. In the Future Science and Technology City in Ninghe District, Tianjin, the Low-altitude Economy Innovation Industrial Park, which was officially unveiled on February 29 this year, is seizing new opportunities for the development of the low-altitude economy. At the Ninghe Campus of Civil Aviation University of China, a number of laboratories, including the UAM (Urban Air Mobility) Fleet Operation Control Center Laboratory, the Civil Aviation Transportation Intelligent Network Technology and Application Laboratory, and the Smart Airport Operation and Support Laboratory, are playing the role of universities as think tanks for the low-altitude economy.
This year's Tianjin government work report pointed out that in the past year, the added value of Tianjin's aerospace industry chain has increased by more than 10%. Aerospace, an "industry looking to the sky", has become a new driving force for Tianjin.
Why is this chain becoming “smoother and smoother”?
Why has Tianjin's aerospace industry developed so rapidly in just a few years? To answer this question, we need to start with the dynamics of the domestic aerospace industry in recent years.
Back in 2016, the National Space Administration released the white paper "China's Space in 2016", which mentioned for the first time "encouraging and guiding private capital and social forces to participate in space research and production in an orderly manner" and expressed the need to vigorously develop commercial space. In the following years, a large number of today's leading commercial space companies were established.
In recent years, with the encouragement and guidance of various policies, more and more private forces have entered the tide of the commercial aerospace industry. Frontline workers in the aerospace field are most impressed by such changes. "In the past, many people thought that rocket manufacturing was purely a 'national matter', but we have proved that private enterprises can also make achievements in this field." Gu Yunfeng, the team leader of the support team of Tianjin Aisda Aerospace Support Center, said, "Nowadays, more and more people are participating in the national 'flying into space' cause, and I think this is a great thing."
The policy guidance at the national level and the unremitting efforts at the local level complement each other. In Tianjin, the aerospace industry is being taken seriously as an important "new track". A small detail can fully reflect Tianjin's sincerity towards the "new track" -
In 2022, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security issued a notice on the first application and review of the professional title of aerospace engineering technology. Since then, aerospace workers in Tianjin have a special title, which was not available before, and so far, it has not been available in many other cities in China. This reflects the city's "deliberate cultivation" of the industry.
"As the saying goes, external promotion and internal cultivation, the company has grown to its current scale in just a few years. In addition to its own efforts, it has also benefited from the 'east wind' of national commercial aerospace development and the 'east wind' of the entire city's support for the aerospace industry." said Ding Changfang, deputy general manager and chief process engineer of Tianjin Aisda Aerospace.
There is also good news in the aviation sector. At the end of March this year, the foundation construction of the 209 assembly plant, the largest single building of the Airbus Tianjin A320 series aircraft second assembly line project undertaken by China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Group, was completed and officially entered the main construction phase. After the project is delivered and put into production, Airbus will have two single-aisle aircraft and one double-aisle aircraft production lines in Tianjin.
Airbus Tianjin Second Final Assembly Line Project Construction Site
Also in March this year, Tianjin Port, known as the "maritime gateway" of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, set a new record of "zero defect" loading and unloading of 700 Airbus large parts. Since the first Airbus assembly line outside Europe landed in Tianjin in 2006, and since the "COSCO Seattle" arrived at Tianjin Port in 2008 with the first Airbus large part, Tianjin has used more than ten years of actions to prove its determination to escort Airbus large parts. In 2023, the data that Tianjin Port received and unloaded 61 Airbus large parts, a year-on-year increase of 22%, further shows that this journey will become smoother and smoother.
Future: Tianjin is making "infinite progress" in this "go to the sky" undertaking
In the first half of this year, the total import and export value of aerospace equipment in Tianjin ranked first in the country, totaling 33.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%, accounting for 29.6% of the country. Tianjin is gradually attracting a large number of domestic and foreign civil aviation projects such as aviation maintenance, aviation coatings, and aviation simulator manufacturing. Today, Tianjin has become the world's fourth aviation manufacturing center with the ability to manufacture both single-body and wide-body passenger aircraft after Toulouse, Hamburg and Seattle.
Since the beginning of this year, Tianjin's aerospace industry has been making new moves. In May, in the production workshop of Tianjin Aisda Aerospace Headquarters, a team of craftsmen was assembling a new fairing. This fairing is the result of Aisda Aerospace's mastery of the 4.2-meter diameter fairing technology. In the past, similar products could only be up to 3.35 meters. It will be the largest carbon fiber composite fairing in the domestic market, and also the largest fairing in domestic commercial aerospace projects. This is another new breakthrough.
On June 7, the manufacturer of the domestic C919 flight simulator from Beijing set up a research and development center in Tianjin. They will cooperate with the Civil Aviation University of China to jointly tackle key technologies such as the navigation database in the C919 simulator, which is equivalent to the central nervous system of the aircraft. Among all universities in the country, only the Civil Aviation University of China has a scientific research foundation in this niche field.
At the 2024 World Intelligent Industry Expo, which opened in Tianjin on June 20 this year, many academicians, experts and well-known entrepreneurs in the field of intelligent technology focused on the low-altitude economy and delivered speeches. A number of drone and aerospace technology companies, including Yifei Intelligent Control and Yunyao Aerospace, collectively displayed advanced technology products.
Today, in many aerospace companies in Tianjin, many talents are experiencing the life of the "Tale of Two Cities" of Beijing and Tianjin. The model of "Beijing R&D, Tianjin transformation" has been proven to be effective in the aerospace field. The advantages brought by regional collaboration have brought "unlimited progress" to the aerospace industry.
The reason why we can continuously make new achievements is, in the final analysis, the innovation that keeps emerging in the industry and the gathering power that emerges after the industry gradually takes shape into a chain. The "spark" of Tianjin's aerospace industry is steadily "taking off" with the help of the city of Tianjin.
(Jinyun News reporter Hou Muwei, photo by Pu Yonghe and Dai Tao)
