Archive for ‘Lift-off’

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10/04/2020

Chinese Long March-3B rocket fails during launch of Indonesian satellite

  • Malfunction happened during third stage of launch after earlier stages were completed successfully, state media says
  • Failed mission is second in less than a month after Long March-7A encountered problems after lift-off on March 16
A Long March-3B carrier rocket blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province in November. A similar launch on Thursday ended in failure. Photo: Xinhua
A Long March-3B carrier rocket blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province in November. A similar launch on Thursday ended in failure. Photo: Xinhua

China’s space programme suffered another setback on Thursday night with its second rocket launch failure in less than a month.

Officials are investigating what caused a malfunction during the third stage of the Long March-3B launch after lift-off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest Sichuan province at 7.46pm with an Indonesian Palapa-N1 satellite, Xinhua reported.

“The first and second stages of the rocket performed well, but the third stage malfunctioned,” the report said.

“Debris from the third stage of the rocket and the satellite fell [to the ground]. The launch mission failed.”

Debris from the failed mission rained down over Guam on Thursday night. Photo: Twitter
Debris from the failed mission rained down over Guam on Thursday night. Photo: Twitter
China’s state media did not say where the rocket landed, but the office of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defence said “a fiery object over the Marianas sky” observed on Thursday evening was likely connected to the failed launch.
Video footage of the burning debris falling from the sky was widely circulated on social media.
The setback follows another failed launch on March 16, when China’s new Long March-7A, a three-stage, medium-lift, liquid-fuel rocket, encountered an “abnormality” minutes after lifting off from its launch site in the southern island province of Hainan.
China’s BeiDou system one satellite closer to full operation
11 Mar 2020

The satellite lost on Thursday – the Nusantara 2 – was built in China for Indonesian telecommunication companies Pasifik Satelit Nusantara and Indosat Ooredoo. It was intended to replace an older satellite to provide internet and broadcasting services in Indonesia and across the Asia-Pacific region to Australia, The Jakarta Post reported earlier this month.

It is not known if the failed launch will have an impact on other Long March-3B satellite launches planned for later in the year.

Introduced in 1996, the Long March-3B – also known as the CZ-3B or LM-3B – has been the main orbital carrier rocket of China’s space programme. It was used to carry many of the satellites that make up China’s BeiDou navigation system, with the latest addition being in March.

For that launch, engineers used parachutes to control where the rocket’s boosters would land after being discarded after lift-off so as to minimise the impact on people living below, state media reported.

The latest version of the Long March-3B entered service in 2007 and is dedicated to launching heavy communications satellites of up to 5.5 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbits.

Source: SCMP

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07/09/2019

Chandrayaan-2: Modi proud despite Moon landing setback

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his country’s space scientists he was proud of a programme that had come so near to putting a probe on the Moon.

Contact with Chandrayaan-2 was lost moments before its Vikram module was due to touch down at the lunar south pole.

The fate of the craft is not yet known, but Mr Modi said there would be further opportunities.

India would have been the fourth nation to make a soft landing on the Moon.

“The best is yet to come in our space programme. India is with you,” said Mr Modi.

The Chandrayaan-2 approached the Moon as normal until an error occurred about 2.1km (1.3 miles) from the surface, officials said.

Chandrayaan-2 taking offImage copyright ISRO
Image caption The mission’s lift-off was broadcast live to an audience of hundreds of millions

India’s Space Research Organization (Isro) said it lost contact seconds before the ship was expected to land.

The country’s first Moon mission – Chandrayaan-1, in 2008 – carried out the first and most detailed search for water on the lunar surface using radars.

What happened?

Chandrayaan-2 entered the Moon’s orbit on 20 August and was due to make a controlled descent to the surface early on Saturday, Indian time, over a month after it first took off.

Staff at mission control were glued to the screens at Isro’s Bangalore space centre as the spacecraft made its descent towards the surface.

The control room burst into applause during the so-called rough breaking phase of the descent, with Prime Minister Modi watching the action from behind a glass screen.

Isro chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan announced to staff that the ship’s initial descent had been “normal,” and that the mission’s data would be analysed.

Mr Sivan had earlier described the final descent as “15 minutes of terror”.

What was this mission all about?

Chandrayaan-2 (Moon vehicle 2) was the most complex mission ever attempted by India’s space agency, Isro. “It is the beginning of a historical journey,” Isro chief K Sivan said after launch in July.

The lander (named Vikram, after the founder of Isro) carried within its belly a 27kg Moon rover with instruments to analyse the lunar soil.

The rover (called Pragyan – wisdom in Sanskrit) had the capacity to travel 500m from the lander in its 14-day life span, and would have sent data and images back to Earth for analysis.

The mission would have focused on the lunar surface, searching for water and minerals and measuring moonquakes, among other things.

Why would it have been significant?

A soft landing on another planetary body – a feat achieved by just three other countries so far – would have been a huge technological achievement for Isro and India’s space ambitions, writes science writer Pallava Bagla.

He adds that it would also have paved the way for future Indian missions to land on Mars, and opened up the possibility of India sending astronauts into space.

For the first time in India’s space history, the interplanetary expedition was led by two women – project director Muthaya Vanitha and mission director Ritu Karidhal.

Media caption Is India a space superpower?

It is also a matter of national pride – the satellite’s lift-off in July was broadcast live on TV and Isro’s official social media accounts.

The mission has also made global headlines because it’s so cheap – the budget for Avengers: Endgame, for instance, was more than double at an estimated $356m. But this isn’t the first time Isro has been hailed for its thrift. Its 2014 Mars mission cost $74m, a tenth of the budget for the American Maven orbiter.

Source: The BBC

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29/07/2019

Lift-off for China’s Long March grid-fin tech in space race for reusable rockets

  • Chinese scientists say they have developed controls to help steer spent boosters crashing back to Earth
Lattice-like grid fins are used to guide spent boosters as they fall to Earth. Photo: Science and Technology Daily
Lattice-like grid fins are used to guide spent boosters as they fall to Earth. Photo: Science and Technology Daily

China says it has successfully tested new fins on its Long March rockets to help guide spent boosters away from populated areas, possibly paving the way for development of reusable technology like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

China successfully launched a Long March 2C rocket on Friday using grid-fin technology to guide its spent booster to a landing spot in Guizhou province in the country’s southwest, state-run Science and Technology Daily reported on Sunday, citing China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a key contractor for the Chinese space programme.

The report said China was the second country to master the technology, after the United States.

Grid fins are aerodynamic control surfaces that are folded during the launch but deployed in flight. In the more sophisticated applications such as the Falcon 9, the fins manipulate the direction of the rocket during re-entry.
A Long March-2C carrier rocket carrying remote sensing satellites blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Xichang, Sichuan province, on Friday. Photo: Xinhua
A Long March-2C carrier rocket carrying remote sensing satellites blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Xichang, Sichuan province, on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

Shanghai-based online news outlet The Paper reported that the 2C’s grid fins were developed by a team of about a dozen engineers, all under the age of 35.

The team also designed a new companion electrical control system to control the fins, taking about six months to complete the task.

China has conducted frequent satellite launches in recent years, including 38 last year, the highest total for any country in 2018. But landing safety has become an issue as traditional zones grow more populated.

Chinese start-up rocket maker counts down to launching “shoebox” satellites
Chinese media reported in January 2018 that a booster from a Long March 3B rocket created a massive fireball after it fell from the sky and exploded in a residential area, though no casualties were reported.

And Shaanxi Television reported in May this year that debris was found on a motorway in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province, with residents saying they heard a loud noise and saw an object fall to the ground.

Under existing arrangements, authorities in projected landing zones have to evacuate the areas each time, not only inconveniencing residents but adding to the economic cost and difficulty of the work, according to the The Paper. The grid fins are expected to help ease some of those problems.

“The successful test of the [grid-fin] technology is of great significance to solving the landing issue,” the report quoted CASC assistant director He Wei as saying.

“It also lays a solid foundation for recoverable and reusable technologies.”

China plans more satellites to build up navigation system to rival GPS

Long Lehao, chief commander and designer of Long March 3A rocket series, said the development of reusable technologies could support large-scale development and use of space in the future, as well as make the space programmes more commercially competitive, The Beijing News reported.

Beijing sees space as an important driver for growth and an opportunity to promote hi-tech industries.

On Thursday,

a Beijing-based company

became the first private firm in China to successfully launch a rocket into space.

Source: SCMP

Posted in China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China’s Long March, global space race, grid-fin tech, Guizhou Province, Lift-off, reusable rockets, Science and Technology Dail, shaanxi province, sichuan province, SpaceX’s Falcon 9, The Beijing News, Uncategorized, Xichang Satellite Launch Centre | Leave a Comment »

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