China Focus: China's new-generation Long March rockets to facilitate manned lunar, Mars missions

BEIJING, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- China's new-generation manned launch vehicle, the Long March-10 carrier rocket, will enhance the country's lunar transfer orbit payload capacity from 8.2 tonnes to 27 tonnes, according to Long Lehao, a rocket designer at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).

Long March-10 is being developed to launch new-generation manned spacecraft and landers for China's lunar landing program, said Long, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Its development is progressing in an orderly manner, and it has completed its first-stage power system tests, he noted.

Based on the Long March-10, a series of derived configurations for manned and cargo missions to the country's space station can be developed for the station's operational tasks and to meet the launch requirements of various satellites, he said.

He also revealed that the Long March-9 carrier rocket, a future heavy-lift launch vehicle, will have a diameter of 10.6 meters and a height of approximately 114 meters. It will have a lunar transfer orbit payload capacity of 50 tonnes.

Powered by liquid oxygen and methane as cryogenic propellants, the Long March-9 can be used to launch manned Mars missions in the future, Long said.

He noted that both stages of the Long March-9 will be fully reusable, and have been designed to be recovered at sea.

An animated CALT video screened at the recent 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition shows the reusable rocket's first stage deploying grid fins during its descent, which then allow the structure to be captured by moving rails on an offshore platform. It also shows the second stage performing a powered vertical landing.

The development of the heavy-lift carrier rocket will provide strong impetus for the progress of related basic industries, including advanced design, high-end manufacturing, raw materials and components, Long said.