China's Space Program News Thread

[by78]

High-resolution images of the LM5 launch...

 

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[by78]

Three more high-resolution images.

 

[by78]

Five more high-resolution images.

 

[antiterror13]

Beautiful!

 

[taxiya]

There is actually a pretty good comment about how to get to the moon without building a (4,000 ton class) moon-rocket:

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Getting to the moon without a "4000 tonne" class is a parallel work, BUT neither a temporary stopgap nor an alternative/optional/additional work.

The Chinese moon program from the start envisioned two launch vehicles. One is dedicated man rated carrier, initially named CZ-5DY (all LOX/Kerosene first stags, 1600 tonne lift mass), now transformed to a CBC configuration "921" (2200 tonne lift mass). The other is a heavy lifter AKA CZ-9. CZ-9 is to deliver heavy and large sized modules to the moon surface to build long-term habitat or station. CZ-9 is NOT aimed to be man-rated initially, but may (or may not) in the future.

As you can see, the original and initial plan to go to the moon surface was never to be a 4000 tonne class, but something around CZ-5, CZ-5DY or "921". Also note, "921" can be seen as "CZ-5CBC" as it is from the same technical tree (CZ-7, 8 included) which rooted as CZ-5 as an overall program decades ago.