China's Space Program Thread II

[Tomboy]

In ASTP's video on Bilibili in collab with Landspace, ZQ-3A is supposedly capable of first flight as soon as Q4 of this year. It should be able to match Falcon 9's payload capacity with reuse.

Though given that they are a private company, I'd personally take this timeline with a grain of salt.

 

[no_name]

It is unusual for western media to report anything good from China, it is only normal for western media to report "bad", "explosion", "orbit debris" and "hazardous" from China.

Don't forget the "But at what costs" articles.

 

[TheRathalos]

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All individual stages of the Long March 10 have been succesfuly static fired*; The manned lunar exploration project at the Wenchang Space Launch Site is expected to complete all construction by the second half of 2026.

*Propulsive system test of 2nd and 3rd stages at the AALPT 101st Institute 500tf test stand = Static fire of a stage, not just engine bay.

At least one of the CZ-10A's grid fins failed to lock, so it spring back and fail to deploy during reentry ignition. The symmetrical grid fins were also retracted, probably to balance the drag, so the final splashdown only used two grid fins.

As shown on the patch, this was intentional to test redundancy, Yi Rong, chief designer of CZ-10 at CALT

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that the result of the test fit almost all predictions.

 

[tiancai8888]

As shown on the patch, this was intentional to test redundancy

IMO not, the folded grid-fin still rotates when splashing down. check

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If testing redundancy they should lock the rotation. IMO still an unexpect event.

Also at 1m44s of this video , you could hear a guy at background saying "Ahh, not locked"

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[taxiya]

IMO not, the folded grid-fin still rotates when splashing down. check

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If testing redundancy they should lock the rotation. IMO still an unexpect event.

Why? At that altitude (about 5 to 10 meters), the air speed is near zero, fins can do nothing regardless locked or unlocked.

Besides, the chief designer is a scientist, she designed the test, nobody can know better than her.

Also at 1m44s of this video , you could hear a guy at background saying "Ahh, not locked"

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Here is 1m44s, and I contitued to the end of splash down, I failed to hear "ahh, not locked".

 

[taxiya]

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transcription of the video around the time of deployment of the fins
At 1:37: fins at 90 degrees in the camera view extended with people cheering "展开了"/"extended".
At 1:42 to 1:43: fin on the right side retracted, engine fired. people continue cheering, one voiced "点火了"/"fired", another voiced "wow", nobody mentioned the retraction.
At 1:47: people continue cheering, one voice said "altitude remains".

Conclusion: one out of two fins in the camera view was briefly deployed and retracted in front of everybody but nobody is surprised and people continue cheering and applouding. It is clear to me that the test went through as expected by the design.

 

[tiancai8888]

Here is 1m44s, and I contitued to the end of splash down, I failed to hear "ahh, not locked".

1:43~1:44 "Ahh , not locked , not locked"/"啊，没锁上，没锁上", in a low voice but you can tell.

Also you could see the footage at 1:40~1:41 the grid fin at left side of the view, flipped back at a very fast speed, obviously much faster when it deployed. IMO not normal if they planned it intentionally.

I pulled out the sound clip and enhanced the human voice, you could check:

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[bsdnf]

CACL is transporting a rocket, which is speculated to be the second CZ-12B rocket.

The first CZ-12B rocket has not yet been launched; only the ignition test has been completed. That rocket failed from the previous landing test was a 12A.

 

[bsdnf]

ZQ-3 will conduct a second launch and booster recovery test in Q2, and attempt to reuse it in Q4.

 

[anzha]

Numerical and experimental analysis of grid fin aerodynamic performance for China's next generation LOX/LCH4 reusable launch vehicle ZQ-3

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