China's Satellite Strategic Plan: The Strength of the Lijian-1 Yao-3 Launch VehicleWith the continuous development of science and technology, the importance of satellites is becoming more and more recognized. And in the field of satellite construction, China is not lagging behind. The Chinese version of the Starlink plan is an important part of China's satellite strategic plan, and it will lay out about 130,000 satellites, covering the whole world. The realization of this plan is inseparable from reliable launch vehicles.
Although reusable rockets have economic value, if we put aside issues such as economic value, without reusable rockets, it is not impossible to realize the construction of the entire Chinese version of Starlink. Rockets such as China's Lijian 1 also have considerable strength and can carry out "one arrow and multiple satellites" launch missions. Recently, Zhongke Aerospace held a ceremony for the departure of the Lijian-1 Yao-3 carrier rocket at the Zhongke Aerospace Flight Science and Technology Industrialization Base.
It is expected that in January 2024, the "one arrow and five satellites" launch mission will be carried out at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which may be China's first "one arrow and multiple satellites" mission goal in 2024. Lijian No. 1 is the largest solid launch vehicle in China, with a take-off weight of 135 tons, a take-off thrust of 200 tons, a total length of 30 meters, and a core stage diameter of 265 meters, 500 km sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity 1500 kg.
In the process of research, the rocket has achieved a number of technical projects, including breakthroughs in the overall optimal design and test technology of large-tonnage solid launch vehicles, advanced power system and thrust vector control technology, centralized-distributed modern aerospace electronics technology, cost rocket body structure and separation technology, intelligent flight control technology, large-tonnage solid rocket ground use and thermal launch technology and many other major key technologies. Through the innovation of research paradigm, high-efficiency, low-cost and agile development has been realized, which has made an important contribution to the technological change in the field of launch vehicles in China.
In terms of testing, the development speed of Lijian 1 is also quite fast. After the test in 2021, the first satellite launch mission in 2022 was a challenging task to achieve the mission of "killing six stars with one stone". What's even crazier is that the task of "one arrow and 26 stars" was achieved for the second time, which is a rare thing in China, and it refreshed the record of "one arrow with many stars" in China at that time. It can be seen that the strength of Lijian No. 1 is very strong, not only in the aspect of "one arrow with multiple stars", but also in the technical aspect of many breakthroughs.
With the continuous advancement of China's satellite strategic plan, it is believed that Lijian-1 will have a wider application prospect and provide a strong guarantee for the construction of China's version of Starlink. China's rocket strength is constantly improving, and a number of reusable rockets are being developed. However, even without a reusable rocket, China has a unique PowerArrow 1 that can support the creation of Starlink and the launch of 130,000 satellites.
The Zhongke Aerospace Flight Science and Technology Industrialization Base is a serialized launch vehicle production base built by Zhongke Aerospace, with an annual output of 30 launch vehicles, which can provide strong support for the layout of Starlink. Of course, repeatable rockets will be the mainstream in the future, and China is also constantly developing a variety of repeatable rockets, such as Suzaku 3, Tianlong 3, Hyperbola 2, etc. It is expected that around 2025, China will start large-scale reusable rocket utilization, and Tianlong-3 is expected to be the first to launch commercial batch launch services, reduce launch costs, and provide more possibilities for Starlink layout.
The rise of China's rockets will certainly promote the development of global space technology. China's aerospace industry - Tianlong-3 rocket leads the new field of satellite launches, China's aerospace industry has been developing rapidly, Tianlong-3 rocket is a very advanced rocket, using more than 30 new technologies, including stainless steel 3D printing engine, liquid nitrogen vaporization and pressurization, supercooled liquid oxygen, supercooled kerosene, pneumatic separation, etc., the application of these technologies has greatly improved the cost performance of the rocket.
The diameter of the Tianlong-3 rocket is 38 meters, with a total length of 71 meters, a take-off mass of 590 tons, a take-off thrust of 770 tons, a low-earth orbit capacity of 17 tons and a sun-synchronous orbit capacity of 14 tons. Not only that, the Tianlong-3 rocket also adopts technologies such as grid rudder and ** outriggers, which can be reused more than 50 times and has the function of autonomous return. Judging from these data, the Tianlong-3 rocket is more advanced and better than the previous rockets such as Lijian 1.
The emergence of these rockets is entirely to promote the new infrastructure of China's satellite Internet. If these rockets are fully successful, then China will inevitably come to the forefront in the field of satellite launches, and multiple companies will not be able to do one?However, there are a lot of people who will ask that these rockets are not yet fully successful, but are already bragging. Indeed, we cannot deny that these rockets still have a lot of problems to solve, but we also cannot look down on our own space prowess.
The speed of development of China's space industry has impressed the world, and although we may not be as big as SpaceX now, this may change after it is fully developed. In short, the Tianlong-3 rocket is a shining pearl in China's aerospace industry and represents the highest level of China's aerospace technology. I believe that with the unremitting efforts of Chinese astronauts, we will definitely walk in the forefront of the world in the field of satellite launch and promote China's aerospace industry to a new height