Launch News [Failure] Long March-5 Y2

[boogabooga]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinas-heavy-lift-rocket-launch-fails-flight-135454156.html

 

[IronRain]

We don't have an article about this launch? Time to find some time to get back to this stuff.
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China’s Long March 5 – ranking among the most powerful rockets in the world – is standing ready atop its launch pad on Hainan Island for liftoff this weekend with one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest Geostationary Satellite ever flown, test driving a new platform that enables future ultra-high performance satellites.

Long March 5 is the most powerful member of China’s new line of rockets that debuted in the last two years to slowly phase into operational missions as the country aims to replace its antiquated rocket technology relying on lower-efficiency toxic propellants with modern rockets that are environmentally friendly and offer a much greater performance which is badly needed to meet China’s ambitious goals in human spaceflight and robotic solar system exploration.

The Long March 5 took flight for the first time on November 3, 2016 – lighting up the night skies over its picturesque launch site after a dramatic countdown that had engineers and controllers scrambling to work around a series of issues that cropped up as late as T-2 minutes.

Rising from its pad, Long March 5 provided quite a sight as it streaked into the night under the power of its four large boosters and cryogenic core stage. The mission was not without trouble and suffered a premature shutdown of the rocket’s second stage, requiring the YZ-2 upper stage to use performance margin planned for the inaugural flight to compensate and inject the Shijian-17 satellite into the planned Geostationary Drift Orbit.

Engineers are hoping all teething issues were ironed out and Long March 5 will be able to demonstrate its reliability on Sunday’s flight in order to clear the heavy-lifter for its upcoming high-profile mission in November, lifting the Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission.

Long March 5 will also be called upon for the launch of China’s first Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Rover Mission in 2020 and it will lift the Tianhe Core Module and two science laboratory modules for the Chinese Space Station starting in 2019.

Sunday’s launch appears to be targeting liftoff around 11:20 UTC, 7:20 p.m. local time based on navigational warnings, however, as shown by the last mission, Long March 5 can have an extended launch window if the satellite’s specifications allow.

Hidden under the rocket’s payload fairing is Shijian-18, an experimental communications satellite that is debuting the DFH-5 next-generation satellite bus developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) for future ultra-high performance communications satellites.

With a reported launch mass of seven metric tons, Shijian-18 appears to be the heaviest unclassified Geostationary Satellite launched to date, surpassing the TerreStar-1 satellite that is the current record-holder with a launch mass of 6,902kg.

The DFH-5 satellite platform builds upon new satellite technology developed for the current-generation DFH-4 platform and adds a number of innovative developments such as a truss structure building the backbone of the large satellite, new 2D Twice Deploying Semi-Rigid Solar Arrays, advanced thermal control systems with deployable radiators, and a new type of self-controlled propellant system.

DFH-5 uses hybrid propulsion with chemical thrusters and new high-thrust ion propulsion for stationkeeping over extended mission lives.

According to CAST, DFH-5 more than triples the payload capacity of current satellites and future iterations of the vehicle may weigh up to 9,000 Kilograms and support payloads of up to 2,200 Kilograms with a payload power of up to 28 Kilowatts – surpassing any satellite bus currently in operation.

Source: http://spaceflight101.com/long-march-5-rocket-set-for-second-flight-this-weekend/

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2-_-GC9sM4"]China launches Long March-5 Y2 heavy-lifting rocket - YouTube[/ame]

 

[IronRain]

Nasaspaceflight: Long March 5 suffers failure with Shijian-18 launch

China launched its second Long March-5 (Chang Zhen-5) rocket on Sunday carrying a super-heavy experimental communications satellite. The launch took place at 11:23 UTC from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre’s LC101 dedicated Launch Complex. However, with the Long March-5, carrying the Shijian-18 satellite, suffered an unspecified failure during what was only its second flight.

The launch was part of a shakedown period for China’s new rocket, which is set to play a major role in Lunar and Mars missions.

Issues with the launch were not immediately known, with commentators claiming all was fine with the launch, including a message of mission success after spacecraft separation.

However, and as observed during the coverage, parameters were becoming off nominal early in the flight. Official media then called the mission a failure less than an hour after the launch was conducted.

This was a rare live broadcast of a Chinese launch and it will likely result in pressure to further remove the Chinese rockets from international attention.

 

[IronRain]

chinaspacereport.com: Two consecutive failures threaten future Chinese space missions

 

[moonrabbit]

They seem to have found the reason for the failure?

//http://aviationweek.com/space/long-march-5-fault-identified-other-launchers-unaffected