Long March (rocket family)

After the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed in 1986, a growing commercial backlog gave China the chance to enter the international launch market. In September 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan agreed to allow U.S satellites to be launched on Chinese rockets.[1] AsiaSat 1, which had originally been launched by the Space Shuttle and retrieved by another Space Shuttle after a failure, was launched by a Long March 3 in 1990 as the first foreign payload on a Chinese rocket.

However, major setbacks occurred in 1992–1996. The Long March 2E was designed with a defective payload fairing, which collapsed when faced with the rocket's excessive vibration. After just seven launches, the Long March 2E destroyed the Optus B2 and Apstar 2 satellites and damaged AsiaSat 2.[2][3] The Long March 3B also experienced a catastrophic failure in 1996, veering off course shortly after liftoff and crashing into a nearby village. At least 6 people were killed on the ground, and the Intelsat 708 satellite was also destroyed.[4] A Long March 3 also experienced a partial failure in August 1996 during the launch of Chinasat-7.

See also International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and specifically the section on satellite components.

The involvement of United States companies in the Apstar 2 and Intelsat 708 investigations caused great controversy in the United States. In the Cox Report, the United States Congress accused Space Systems/Loral and Hughes of transferring information that would improve the design of Chinese rockets and ballistic missiles.[5] Although the Long March was allowed to launch its commercial backlog, the United States Department of State has not approved any satellite export licenses to China since 1998. ChinaSat 8, which had been scheduled for launch in April 1999 on a Long March 3B rocket,[6] was placed in storage, sold to the Singapore company ProtoStar, and finally launched on a European rocket Ariane 5 in 2008.[5]

From 2005 to 2012, Long March rockets launched ITAR-free satellites made by the European company Thales Alenia Space.[7] However, Thales Alenia was forced to discontinue its ITAR-free satellite line in 2013 after the United States State Department fined a United States company for selling ITAR components.[8] Thales Alenia Space had long complained that "every satellite nut and bolt" was being ITAR-restricted, and the European Space Agency (ESA) accused the United States of using ITAR to block exports to China instead of protecting technology.[9] In 2016, an official at the United States Bureau of Industry and Security confirmed that "no U.S.-origin content, regardless of significance, regardless of whether it is incorporated into a foreign-made item, can go to China". The European aerospace industry is working on developing replacements for United States satellite components.[10]

After the failures of 1992–1996, the troublesome Long March 2E was withdrawn from the market. Design changes were made to improve the reliability of Long March rockets. From October 1996 to April 2009, the Long March rocket family delivered 75 consecutive successful launches, including several major milestones in space flight:

• On 15 October 2003, the Long March 2F rocket successfully launched the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, carrying China's first astronaut into space. China became the third nation with independent human spaceflight capability, after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States.
• On 1 June 2007, Long March rockets completed their 100th launch overall.
• On 24 October 2007, the Long March 3A successfully launched (10:05 UTC) the "Chang'e 1" lunar orbiting spacecraft from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The Long March rockets have subsequently maintained an excellent reliability record. Since 2010, Long March launches have made up 15–25% of all space launches globally. Growing domestic demand has maintained a healthy manifest. International deals have been secured through a package deal that bundles the launch with a Chinese satellite, circumventing the United States embargo.[11]

A new series of launch vehicles in study, which is geared towards Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) launches.[19] In early 2017, it was expected to be based on the Long March 7, and have two solid fuel boosters, and first launch by the end of 2018.[20] By 2019, it was intended to be partially reusable. The first stage will have legs and grid fins (like Falcon 9) and it may land with side boosters still attached.[21] Long March 8 was rolled out to for a test launch on or around December 20, 2020 and launched on December 22, 2020.[22]

Comparison of super heavy-lift launch vehicles. Masses listed are the maximum payload to low Earth orbit in metric tons.

The Long March 9 (LM-9, CZ-9, or Changzheng 9, Chinese: 长征九号) is a Chinese super-heavy carrier rocket concept proposed in 2018[23] that is currently in study. It is planned for a maximum payload capacity of 140,000 kg[24] to LEO, 50,000 kg to Trans-lunar injection or 44,000 kg to Mars.[25][26] Its first flight is expected in 2030 in preparation for a lunar landing sometime in the 2030s;[27] a sample return mission from Mars has been proposed as first major mission.[26] It has been stated that around 70% of the hardware and components needed for a test flight are currently undergoing testing, with the first engine test to occur by the end of 2018. The proposed design would be a three-staged rocket, with the initial core having a diameter of 10 meters and use a cluster of four engines. Multiple variants of the rocket have been proposed, CZ-9 being the largest with four liquid-fuel boosters with the aforementioned LEO payload capacity of 140,000 kg, CZ-9A having just two boosters and a LEO payload capacity of 100,000 kg, and finally CZ-9B having just the core stage and a LEO payload capacity of 50,000 kg.[17] If produced, it would be classified as a super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The "921 rocket" is under development for crewed lunar missions. The rocket has no official name; the nickname "921" refers to the founding date of China's human spaceflight program. Like the Long March 5, it uses 5-meter (16.4 ft) diameter rocket bodies and YF-100K engines, although with 7 engines on each of 3 cores.[28] The launch weight is about 2200 tonnes, delivering 25 tonnes into trans-lunar injection.[29] The proposed crewed lunar mission uses two rockets; the crewed spacecraft and lunar landing stack launch separately and rendezvous in lunar orbit.[30] Development was announced at the 2020 China Space Conference.[29]