Long March 5

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology unveiled a conceptual human-rated launch vehicle design in October at the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai that uses clusters of YF-100K engines and 5-meter-diameter cores similar to Long March 5.

China’s Chang’e-5 sample return mission is planned to follow the Chang’e-4 mission and could launch in late 2019 on a Long March 5 rocket.

The Long March 5B is a variant of the Long March 5 designed for lofting large modules of the planned Chinese Space Station into low Earth orbit.

The third Long March 5 rocket was expected to be shipped from Tianjin to the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center around the end of 2018-10-01 for delivery to Hainan island.

Components of the third Long March 5 underwent final tests at a facility in Tianjin in 2018-10-01.

The third Long March 5 will carry an experimental telecommunications satellite named Shijian-20 based on the DFH-5 satellite platform.

The Shijian-20 satellite is similar to the Shijian-18 satellite that was lost in the 2017-07-01 Long March 5 failure.

A successful return-to-flight of the Long March 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle in late 2018 or early 2019 is necessary to keep the Chinese Space Station schedule on track.

The Long March 5 will be required to launch China’s first independent interplanetary mission to Mars in summer 2020 with an arrival at Mars planned for 2021.

A nominal Long March 5 flight would clear the way for a test flight of the Long March 5B variant designed to loft 20-metric-ton space station modules into low Earth orbit.

Specially designed cargo ships Yuanwang 21 and Yuanwang 22 will leave port on the Yangtze River to collect Long March 5 rocket components from Tianjin for transport to Hainan Island for a Wenchang Satellite Launch Center launch planned for November or 2018-12-01.

China’s major space plans, including launch of space station modules, testing a new generation of crewed spacecraft, and lunar exploration ambitions such as a sample return, depend on a successful flight of the third Long March 5.

The Long March 5 return-to-flight is expected late in 2018 using redesigned first-stage engines to carry the experimental high-throughput communications satellite Shijian-20 to geostationary orbit.

The Long March 5 is designed to become China’s new heavy-lift vehicle with the capability to launch up to 25,000 kg into low Earth orbit.

China planned for the Long March 5 to play an important role in the assembly of the Chinese space station starting around 2018.

China’s 2018 launch manifest included missions delayed by a near three-month cessation of launch activities in 2017 following the Long March 5 failure.

A variant of the Long March 5 rocket for low Earth orbit launches, the Long March 5B, will lift off for the first time in 2019-06-01 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan island carrying another test spacecraft for the project.

China plans to launch the first module of the Chinese Space Station, named Tianhe, around 2020 contingent on the nominal return-to-flight of the Long March 5 launch vehicle and a successful debut of the Long March 5B.

The Long March 5B is a variant of Long March 5 used for low Earth orbit launches with a planned debut in mid-2019.