On May 5, the Long March-5B blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of South China's Hainan Province, officially kicking off China's space station construction. Issued by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Tu Haichao).

Xinhua News Agency, Wenchang, Hainan Province, May 5 (Li Guoli, Xiao Jianjun). The Long March-5B launch vehicle developed for China's manned space station made a successful maiden flight in Wenchang, Hainan Province, officially kicking off the "Step 3" of China's Manned Space Engineering .

during which the new rocket managed to send the assembly of a trial version of the country's new-generation manned spaceship with no crew and a testing cargo-returning spacecraft into planned orbit.

At 18:00 on the 5th, Long March-5B carried a trial version of China’s new-generation manned spacecraft with no crew and a testing flexible inflatable cargo-returning spacecraft, which was ignited from the Wenchang Space Launch Center. After a flight of 488 seconds, the payload assembly and the rocket successfully separated into a designated orbit. The first mission of China's space station stage was successful.

On May 5, the Long March-5B Launch Vehicle developed for China's manned space station project successfully took off in Wenchang, Hainan, officially kicking off the "third step" mission of China's manned space project. Issued by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Tu Haichao).

The Long March-5B is developed on the basis of the Long March-5 Launch Vehicle, and is mainly responsible for major space launch tasks such as the cabin section of China's space station. The 53.66-meter-long Long March-5B, with a diameter of 5 meters for its core, bundled 4 boosters with a diameter of 3.35 meters. Having a fairing with a length of 20.5 meters and a diameter of 5.2 meters, the Long March-5B uses non-toxic and non-polluting liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene as a propellant. The take-off mass is about 849 tons, and the low-Earth orbit carrying capacity is greater than 22 tons. It is currently the rocket with the largest low-Earth orbit carrying capacity in China.

The successful launch signaled that a new era of the construction of China's manned space projects has been officially ushered in

Building a space station with an internationally advanced level and solving the problem of large-scale, long-term manned space applications is the mission goal of the third step in the "three-step" development strategy of China's manned space project. According to reports, the first flight of Long March 5B was successful, which verified the correctness and coordination of the overall rocket plan and the sub-system plans, and broke through the large-size fairing separation technology, large-diameter cabin and rocket connection separation technology, and large thrust directly into orbit. A number of new technologies, such as the precision control technology for deviations, have laid an important foundation for China's space station orbit construction task.

This task coincides with the raging spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. The project resolutely implements the Party Central Committee’s decision and deployment on the overall promotion of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, adopting closed management, remote consultation, and system-wide coordination to streamline personnel. Scale, optimize the testing process, and strictly prevent and control the epidemic. Facing the severe test brought about by the failure of the Long March 7A and Long March 3B Launch Vehicles, the project carried out in-depth quality rectification across the board, and completed fault stripping and inferences with high quality. In response to the quality problems that occurred during the preparation of this mission, we strictly followed the "Double Five" standard of zeroing, focusing not only on technical problems and ideological problems, but also on the expert line and the mass line, focusing on both technical improvement and improvement. Strengthened management responsibilities ensured the organic unity of task progress and quality.

In 1992, the Party Central Committee made a "three-step" development strategy for the implementation of manned space projects. After more than 20 years of independent development and continuous struggle, 16 major missions have been organized and implemented, and 11 astronauts have achieved a total of 14 space flights and returned safely, and successfully completed all the scheduled tasks of the first and second steps.

On May 5, the Long March 5B Launch Vehicle developed for China's manned space station project successfully flew in Wenchang, Hainan, officially kicking off the "third step" mission of China's manned space project. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Cheng.

The launch vehicle, the test ship and the test module that were launched this time, are respectively the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the China Academy of Space Technology, and the Second Research Institute affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The institute pays attention to research and development.

Link: http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2020-05/05/c_1125944599.htm

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