China Central Television (CCTV) reports that the carrier rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China’s Shanxi Province at 7 a.m. Beijing time.
Advertisement
The Long March-6, a newly developed carrier rocket which uses liquid propellant, took off from a launch base in the northern province of Shanxi on Sunday morning carrying 20 “micro” satellites, the official Xinhua news agency said.
State media were glowing in their praise for the new rocket.
“We believe it will greatly boost the competitiveness of Chinese carrier rockets in the global market”, said Mr Zhang Weidong, chief designer at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. “The new model will also significantly improve our abilitiy to access space”, said Zhang.
It will apply China’s largest solid-fuel rocket engine and was designed to meet the need to rapidly launch satellites in case of emergencies or disasters.
The rocket was wholly developed in China at low cost, high reliability, strong adaptability and good safety, Chinese media reported.
Among the items outlined are the launch of manned spaceships, next-generation rockets and the use of cleaner fuel, all of which are expected to help the country realize its goal of building a space station by 2020.
While the Long March 6 has only a modest lift capability of 1,080 kg, the launch was the crucial first full flight test of the new YF-100 engine, which is required to make China’s ambitious space plans possible.
China’s space programme, which has potential military applications, is shrouded in secrecy.
A 2011 policy paper issued by the State Council, or cabinet, said the Long March-6 would be capable of placing a tonne of payload into orbit at a height of 700 kilometers (434 miles).
“Loading, testing and positioning were finished when the Long March 6 rocket was at a horizontal position, before it was lifted to an upright position for launching”, he said.
China completed its first return mission to the Moon past year with an unmanned probe landing successfully back on Earth.
Advertisement
The next generation of Long March rocket, Long March 5 rocket family is a brand new design while Long March 6 and Long March 7 can be seen as derivations because they use the liquid rocket booster design of Long March 5 to build small-to-mid capacity launch vehicles.
