Long March 7A Launches Test Satellite No. 9
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
China’s Long March 7A rocket made its first successful flight on Friday, placing a technology verification satellite into orbit nearly a year after the booster failed in its maiden launch.
The booster lifted off at 1:51 a.m. from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China. The payload was the Shiyan-9 satellite, which will demonstrate new technologies.
A variant of the Long March 7 rocket, the three-stage booster is equipped with a third stage powered by hydrogen and liquid oxygen that is adapted from the older Long March 3B.
Long March 7A, which features four strap-on motors, is capable of launching 7 metric tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). This is a significant improvement on the Long March 3B, which can lift 5.5 metric tons to LEO.
Long March 7A’s first two stages and strap-on motors are powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen. These are cleaner propellants than the toxic hypergolic ones used on the Long March 3 and Long March 2 boosters, which Long March 7A will replace.
The maiden flight of Long March 7A failed during a classified launch on March 16, 2020. Long March 7 has succeeded in both of its launches.
China has succeeded in five of its six launches in 2021. An i-Space Hyperbola-1 booster carrying several unidentified payloads failed after launch on Feb. 1.
One response to “Long March 7A Launches Test Satellite No. 9”
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All those with their panties in a twist over a potential Chinese victory in the alleged new race to return to the Moon should consider:
1) Current Chinese Moon plans require development of both a new yet-to-be-named tri-core heavy lifter more powerful than Long March 5 and a new Long March 9 super-heavy lifter more capable than the notional SLS Block 2.
2) Based on recent Chinese programs to develop much smaller new rockets, development of these new monsters cannot be expected to proceed without reverses.
3) The comparatively tiny Long March 7A took a year to fix following its initial failure.
4) The much larger Long March 5 took two and a half years to fix following its failed second mission.
Even putting aside the larger question of whether the PRC will still exist by the time it currently plans to be on the Moon, the notional 2030 date for a first test of LM9 puts any initial Chinese manned Moon landing well into the 2030s. By that time, SpaceX will likely have been there for a decade or more and dozens or even hundreds of Americans could be working there.