Long March 10

All stages of China’s Long March 10 (CZ-10) launcher intended to carry the first Chinese astronauts to the Moon have been individually static-fired.

The Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology (航天推进技术研究院) completed power-system and stage ignition/static-fire tests for Long March 10’s first, second, and third stages.

The Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology (AALPT) conducted a propulsion-system test of Long March 10’s hydrolox third stage at its 101st test site.

The launch tower's height at Wenchang has been matched to the dimensions of the Long March 10 and Mengzhou so that platforms and umbilicals can support assembly, checkout, and launch processing.

Extensive testing for reusing YF-100K engines took place over the two years preceding the February 11 flight of Long March 10A.

The Feb. 11 test combined a low-altitude demonstration and verification flight of the Long March 10 carrier rocket with a maximum dynamic pressure abort flight test of the new-generation crewed spacecraft Mengzhou.

The February 11 Long March 10A test booster flew with five real YF-100K engines, performed basically as expected, and was recovered not long after splashdown.

The Long March 10 carrier rocket designed for crewed lunar missions reaches a maximum height of 92.5 meters.

Directly beneath the Wenchang launch pad, a nearly 30-meter-deep flame trench channels away the high-temperature, high-velocity exhaust gases generated when the Long March 10 ignites.

China selected CALT’s competitive proposal for the Long March 10 rocket to be used for the country’s crewed Moon missions.

LC-301 was built to support operations of the Long March 10 launch vehicle and China’s crewed lunar landing missions.

A crane lifted the recovered Long March 10 booster from the water and placed it on a recovery vessel for transport and subsequent analysis.

The shorter Long March 10 configuration for Tiangong resupply flights will omit the third stage to optimize the vehicle for low Earth orbit operations.

Designers intend the Long March 10 capability to support initial lunar landing attempts and the buildup of larger mission architectures.

For lunar missions, the Long March 10 will employ an additional third stage on top of the reusable first stage and an expendable second stage to inject payloads into the Earth-moon transfer trajectory.

The maritime recovery followed a flight test of the Long March 10 first-stage booster integrated with the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft.

The Long March 10 lunar-mission configuration can send at least 27 tons of payload onto an Earth-moon transfer trajectory.

China plans crewed lunar missions around 2030 using the Long March 10 and Mengzhou combination.