At 15:03 on January 9, 2024, the Long March-2C carrier rocket carrying the "Einstein Probe" astronomical satellite was launched from Station 3 of the Xichang Launch Site, successfully launching the satellite into low-earth orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometers and an inclination angle of 29 degrees.
Schematic diagram of the "Einstein Probe" satellite.
The Einstein Probe (EP) satellite is one of the space science satellites approved and implemented by China's Space Science Pilot Project (Phase II), and is China's first X-ray astronomy satellite with a large field of view, which is used to capture astronomical phenomena such as black holes and gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts predicted by Einstein.
The star has a large instantaneous field of view, medium spatial resolution, and a certain spectral resolution, and its monitor for the first time uses an X-ray focusing imaging optical system based on MPO lobster eye technology, which can be used in soft X-ray (05 4keV) band for discovering high-energy X-ray transient sources, drastic sources and monitoring X-ray sources, and its sky-seeking and capturing capabilities and detection sensitivity have reached the international leading level. Satellite quality 145 tons.
The Long March-2C is a medium-sized two-stage liquid launch vehicle at room temperature, and the main power is all nitrous tetroxide metahydrazine propellant. The arrow is about 42 years long3 meters, 1st and 2nd grade diameters 335 meters, with a take-off mass of 241 tons, its low-earth orbit capacity is 4 tons. This rocket uses a diameter of 3The 35-meter fairing, in response to the very high cleanliness requirements of several precision camera lenses of the satellite, the inner wall of the fairing has been "dust-proofed" and sprayed with a layer of coating to seal fine dust.
This launch is the first launch of the "Chang-2C" rocket in 2024, the first launch from the Xichang launch site, the second launch from China and the seventh launch in the world.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou.