China's Long March 7A遥九 Launch Vehicle Set for August 22 Launch

TapTechNews August 20th news, today, the Long March 7A遥九 launch vehicle has been vertically transported to the 201 launch pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China. It is planned to be launched at night on August 22 on an opportunity basis. The payload has not been announced, but some people guess it may be the Remote Sensing Satellite No. 5.

The distance between this launch and the previous launch is only 54 days, which will set a record for the shortest interval between two launch tasks for this rocket (the 遥八 rocket carried out the launch of the 'Zhongxing 3A' high-orbit communication satellite at the Wenchang Launch Site on June 29). This launch will be the 2nd launch of the 'Long March 7A' rocket this year, the 6th launch at the Wenchang Launch Site, and the 10th launch of China's new-generation 'Long March' rocket.

TapTechNews noticed that the People's Government of Wenchang City has already issued a notice on banning the flight activities of small aircraft and air-borne objects from August 19th to 22nd, setting the entire administrative region of the city as a temporary airspace restricted area.

'Long March 7A' is a medium-sized cryogenic liquid launch vehicle, adopting a three-and-a-half-stage configuration, with the core first stage, core second stage, and core third stage connected in series, and 4 boosters evenly strapped around the core first stage.

The maximum height of this rocket is 60.7 meters (in the state with a diameter of 3.7-meter fairing), the diameter of the boosters is 2.25 meters, the diameters of the core first stage and core second stage are 3.35 meters, the diameter of the core third stage is 3 meters, and two types of fairings with diameters of 4.2 meters and 3.7 meters can be selected. The takeoff mass is about 573 tons, and the takeoff thrust is 727 tons. Its geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) carrying capacity is not less than 7 tons.

'Long March 7A' is equipped with a relatively efficient 3-meter diameter hydrogen-oxygen upper stage (core third stage), which is mainly used to perform launch tasks in the earth's medium and high orbits. Unlike other strapped rockets in China, 'Long 7A' is the first strapped rocket in China to achieve cluster separation. The core first stage and the boosters are separated as a whole, making the structure of the rocket's strapped connecting rods more simplified and reducing the rocket debris landing area. Since the 遥二 (the second launch) of 'Long 7A', this type of rocket has achieved 6 consecutive victories.