China debuts Chang Zheng 6A, teases more variants

Date:
Tue, 29 Mar 2022 13:43:25 +0000

Description:
China successfully debuted one of its new generation vehicles on Tuesday when the Chang Zheng The post China debuts Chang Zheng 6A, teases more variants appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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China successfully debuted one of its new generation vehicles on Tuesday
when the Chang Zheng 6A successfully lifted off at 09:50 UTC (5:50 am EDT) from a brand new launch pad at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC).

The rocket lifted the Pujiang-2 satellite and the Tiankun-2 payload to a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).



This is the second payload called Pujiang, with the first launching on a CZ-11 back in September 2015. Todays payload serves a slightly different purpose than the first one, as it will be used for scientific research and land and resources surveillance.

The first Pujiang satellite was used to support smart cities as well as monitor population density, weather, and traffic in cities. It was also the debut of 3D printing technology in China in terms of satellite construction, as 3D printing was used to make the titanium skull of the antenna.

The satellite was also equipped with technology to communicate with other satellites. The LM-6A is, in fact, a pretty hefty way to get 4 tonnes to
polar orbit (at 530 t liftoff weight it's heavier than the Atlas V 541 or H-IIB & close to the current Falcon 9!), but the Chinese need a bigger SSO launcher for new swarms of military/civilian payloads and this works. pic.twitter.com/RBsqU0lMsV

Cosmic Penguin (@Cosmic_Penguin) March 29, 2022



It is not clear if the Pujiang-2 satellite will communicate with the first satellite or if they will work together.

As the secondary payload, Tiankun-2 is not completely related in purpose to the first Tiankun mission as this new satellite will be used for experimental verification of space environment detection technology. See Also Pujiang-2 satellite & Tiankun-2 Updates China Forum Section L2 Resources Click here to Join L2

The first Tiankun was used for testing and verification of satellite bus technology from China and was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

It was launched as a payload on the first flight of the Kaituozhe-2 rocket
in March 2017. As a secondary objective, it was used to study new telecommunication and remote sensing technologies.

The new rocket

The CZ-6A is a two-stage rocket loosely based on the CZ-6 but much larger in size and capabilities. CZ-6A can lift 3 to 5 metric tons into a polar orbit and is planned to be used alongside CZ-8 to launch payloads of similar mass
to SSO. The bigger payload fairing provides more payload by volume compared
to CZ-8.

The CZ-6A is 50 meters tall with a core diameter of 3.35 meters and a
liftoff mass of 530,000 kg. This is very heavy for such a small payload capacity, as it almost reaches the weight of a Falcon 9, which can lift more than double the payload mass. The 5.2-meter payload fairing of the CZ-6A.

In a video released together with the launch, China implied that todays
CZ-6A configuration will not be the only variant. In the closing seconds of the video, a two solid rocket booster (SRB) variant, a single stick without any SRBs, and a Heavy with three main cores were shown.

No launch date, performance targets, or additional details were given; however, with the current performance of the YF-100, a triple-core,
six-engine rocket without additional SRBs would produce almost the same
thrust as todays vehicle.

First launch

For todays launch, the center core was powered by two YF-100 engines which used RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) and are staged combustion cycle engines that are used on the CZ-5, CZ-6, CZ-7, and CZ-8 rockets. The engine
is the backbone of the next generation of Chinese vehicles that no longer use hypergolic mixtures but modern rocket fuels such as RP-1.

The engine runs oxidizer rich, which means it burns more oxygen than it
would in perfectly optimized combustion. The engine provides a thrust of
about 1,200 kN at liftoff and can throttle between 65% and 105% of baseline thrust. For Tuesdays first CZ-6A launch, the two YF-100 engines generated 2,376 kN of thrust at liftoff.

The rocket also featured SRBs that were not the entirety of the stage but rather boosters for the first stage a first for China. For the CZ-6A, there are four attached to the main core of the rocket with each of them having a diameter of 2 meters and each providing 1,214 kN of thrust, combining to
4,828 kN of thrust by all four together. CZ-6A lifts off on its debut
mission.

At liftoff, all of the SRBs and the two main engines produced a combined thrust of 7,204 kN. This brought the rocket to a thrust-to-weight ratio of about 1.38.

The boosters burned for 114.5 seconds and separated from the rocket at 117.5 seconds into the flight. After that, they fell back to land.

The first stage continued its burn for a bit longer. At 179 seconds, the 5.2-meter diameter payload fairing separated, exposing the two payloads to
the vacuum of space. As the aerodynamic loads on the rocket reduced as it climbed higher, the fairing was no longer needed and was removed to save mass in the later phases of the flight.

After 238.5 seconds, the first stage separated from the second stage. The second stage was equipped with a single YF-115 engine that also used RP-1 and LOX. Like the YF-100, the engine is oxidizer-rich and is used on many of the modern CZ-family members.

The YF-115 provided 176.5 kN thrust in vacuum and was developed by the Xian Aerospace Propulsion Institute under the guidance of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) . There are fixed and gimbal versions of the engine, with the latter used on the CZ-6A to equip the upper stage with maneuvering capabilities. CZ-6A on the pad before launch.

The YF-115 ignited 1.5 seconds after stage separation and burned for over
500 seconds before concluding its burn at 786 seconds into the flight.

After a verification period of about 100 seconds, the main satellite separated from the second stage at 886 seconds, with the secondary payload separating at 1,006 seconds after liftoff.

This mission was the 7th launch for China in 2022 all of which so far have been conducted with the Chang Zheng family; however, more commercial launches are expected to join the countrys manifest in the second half of the year.

(Lead image: CZ-6A lifts off on its first mission.)

The post China debuts Chang Zheng 6A, teases more variants appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/03/cz-6a-debut/


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