Long March 4C suffers suspected Launch Failure with Gaofen-10 Earth Observation Satellite

Photo: Xinhua (File)

A Chinese launch carried out from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center Wednesday night likely ended in failure – the first in 2016.

Liftoff of a Long March 4C rocket carrying an Earth Observation Satellite was expected between 18:50 and 19:00 UTC, but the usual announcement of launch success – expected around 40 minutes after blastoff – never arrived.

Given China’s secrecy, especially for military-controlled launches from Taiyuan, the lack of an official announcement could have meant the mission was scrubbed or indeed the launch failed.

In the morning hours, local time, on Thursday, villagers in the Shanyang province -around 600 Kilometers from the Taiyuan launch site, discovered debris from the first stage of the Long March 4C rocket. This confirmed that launch had indeed taken place Wednesday night, but the first stage drop zone is consistent with previous CZ-4 missions, indicating that if a failure transpired it must have involved the second or third stage of the rocket.

U.S. Space Surveillance detected no new objects in orbit. While all signs point to a failed launch, even 12 hours after the planned T-0 time, no official statement from Chinese state media was available. If confirmed, this would be the first worldwide launch failure of 2016 and the first failed orbital space launch for the Chinese since the late 2013 failure of a Long March 4B carrying the CBERS-3 Earth Observation payload.

First Stage Debris – Photo: Weibo via ChinaSpaceflight.com

Depending on the nature of the failure in Wednesday night’s mission, a knock-on effect to a number of high-profile missions on China’s schedule can not yet be ruled out. The two lower stages of the Long March 4C share commonality with other members of the Long March launch family including the CZ-2F that is scheduled to launch China’s Tiangong-2 space laboratory in mid September followed by the crewed Shenzhou-11 spacecraft to visit the miniature space station in October.
The payload of Wednesday’s launch in all likelihood was the Gaofen-10 Earth observation satellite.

Long March 4C

The Long march 4C Launch Vehicle is part of China’s flight proven Long March Rocket family. It is derived from the CZ-4B Launcher, but features a re-startable upper stage and can accommodate a larger Payload Fairing. It is operated from the Jiuquan and Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centers.


CZ-4C has a liftoff mass of 250,000 Kilograms and is 45.8 meters in length with a diameter of 3.35 meters. It features several improvements over the CZ-4B such as new telemetry, tracking, control, and self-destruction systems that are smaller in size. The first stage of the vehicle is powered by a YF-21B Rocket Engine which consists of a cluster of four YF-20B Engines each providing 814 Kilonewtons of Vacuum Thrust

Photo: Xinhua (File)

At liftoff, the YF-21B provides a thrust of 2,962 Kilonewtons generating a total Thrust-to-Weight ratio of 1.21. The Engine Assembly has a weight of 2,850 Kilograms, is 3.3 meters in length and 3.5 meters in diameter. The engine nozzles are gimbaled for vehicle control. All three Stages of the vehicle use Nitrogen Tetroxide as oxidizer and Unsymmetrical Dimethylhydrazine as fuel. The first stage has a liftoff mass of 193,300 Kilograms including 183,300 Kilograms of propellants. It is 24.7 meters in length.

The second stage of the vehicle is powered by a YF-22B Main Engine providing 738 Kilonewtons of thrust and a four-chamber vernier yet designated YF-23F providing 46 Kilonewtons of thrust. The main engines is fixed while the four vernier nozzles can be gimbaled for attitude control during powered flight. The stage is 10.4 meters long and holds 35,370 Kilograms of storable propellants. Both, the first and second stage, are based on components that are flown on other CZ Rockets. The third stage however, is a specially designed rocket stage for the Long March 4C and its purposes.

The stage is 4.9 meters long and has a reduced diameter of 2.9 meters. Liftoff mass is 14,560 Kilograms including 12,800 Kilograms of propellants. It uses a 98-Kilonewton YF-40 Rocket Engine. YF-40 has a dry weight of approximately 166 Kilograms and a diameter of 0.65 meters. It provides re-ignition capability to the vehicle in order to target a variety of orbits and provide precise injection capabilities.

Long March 4C is capable of delivering payloads of up to 4,200 Kilograms to Low Earth Orbit. Sun Synchronous Orbit capability is 2,800 Kilograms and Payloads of up to 1,500 Kilograms can be delivered to Geostationary Transfer Orbit by the Long March 4C.

Source: Spaceflight 101

Varino

Editor

Joined Stellar Hub as an editor in the summer of 2016.