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The Long March 5B Is Coming!
#11
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming!
(May 6, 2021 at 12:57 pm)brewer Wrote:
Quote:A May 4 update from the Aerospace Corporation predicts reentry will occur May 9 at 12:37 a.m. Eastern (04:37 Universal time), with a margin of error of plus or minus 28 hours.

Russian space agency Roscosmos also stated May 4 that its Automated Warning System on Hazardous Situations in Outer Space (ASPOS OKP) indicated that the Long March 5B was set for an uncontrolled reentry.

Calculations by Russian experts indicate a reentry window of 9:00 p.m. May 7 to 4:00 p.m. May 9 Eastern, with more refined predictions to follow in the coming days.

China has yet to comment on the status of the Long March 5B. The country is planning 10 more launches through 2022 of various spacecraft and launch vehicles to construct its three-module space station.  

China is currently preparing to send the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft to Tianhe in the next few weeks using a Long March 7 rocket. A first crewed mission, Shenzhou-12, is expected to send three astronauts to the new orbital outpost in June.

Notably, two more launches of the Long March 5B are expected in 2022 to send the Wentian and Mengtian experiment modules to join Tianhe in orbit.

It is unknown if the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which designed and manufactures the Long March 5B, has planned alterations to the rocket or launch profile which would allow the core stage to either deorbit or fall to Earth on a ballistic trajectory.

The Long March 5B was designed specifically for launching modules for the Chinese space station into low Earth orbit. A test flight in 2020 also saw the core stage reach orbital velocity. That incident saw the stage reenter over the Atlantic Ocean with local reports suggesting debris from that 20-ton stage appears to have survived reentry and landed in the African nation of Côte d’Ivoire.

Space News: https://spacenews.com/chinese-rocket-sta...und-may-8/


The Launch profile of this particular rocket model can’t be changed to make sure the rocket falls back ballistically at the end of the mission.  

Most rockets shed stages as it ascends into orbit.  The shed stages themselves never reach orbital speed, so they fall ballistically back to earth soon after being discarded.   Only a small upper orbital insertion stage go with the payload into orbit.  Once the payload is in orbit, the insertion stage, being small, burns up in the atmosphere when it renters.

The Chinese apparently decided to dispense with multi-stage design philosophy.     There is only one single big core stage.  It goes directly from ground all the way into orbit with the payload.   The only things it sheds are 4 strap on boosters that helps it clear lower atmopshere.   It can’t change its launch profile to fall ballistically back to earth, because if it does, there is nothing on top of it to push the payload into orbit.

So the drama is likely to be repeated as they send up the other major components of the space station.
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Messages In This Thread
The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by BrianSoddingBoru4 - May 6, 2021 at 7:12 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by The Valkyrie - May 6, 2021 at 7:15 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 10:53 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by arewethereyet - May 6, 2021 at 11:06 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by arewethereyet - May 6, 2021 at 11:34 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 12:01 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by brewer - May 6, 2021 at 12:57 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 6:20 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Fireball - May 6, 2021 at 7:58 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by brewer - May 6, 2021 at 8:06 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 8:30 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Fireball - May 6, 2021 at 9:28 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 9:32 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by brewer - May 6, 2021 at 8:37 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 6, 2021 at 8:40 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by brewer - May 6, 2021 at 10:12 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by no one - May 6, 2021 at 10:39 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by arewethereyet - May 6, 2021 at 10:47 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Belacqua - May 7, 2021 at 2:58 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Angrboda - May 7, 2021 at 10:43 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by brewer - May 7, 2021 at 6:50 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 7, 2021 at 12:12 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 7, 2021 at 12:46 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by zebo-the-fat - May 8, 2021 at 9:31 am
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Brian37 - May 8, 2021 at 12:59 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by arewethereyet - May 8, 2021 at 1:03 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Angrboda - May 8, 2021 at 1:08 pm
RE: The Long March 5B Is Coming! - by Anomalocaris - May 9, 2021 at 9:19 am

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