Saturday 6 June 2020

China's Biggest Rocket Launches Test Flight Of Next Generation Crew Spacecraft



In May 2020, China launched a new crewed spacecraft design using their Long March 5 rocket. This test flight will take it up to high orbit and then test high velocity reentry. It's anticipated that this design will ultimately carry Chinese astronauts to the moon in the 2030's. However, for now this is a rare test of hardware under the harsh reentry conditions expected from Lunar return.

Long March 5 is a Chinese heavy lift launch system developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. It is the first Chinese launch vehicle designed from the ground up to focus on non-hypergolic liquid rocket propellants. There are currently two CZ-5 variants: CZ-5 and CZ-5B.

新一代载人飞船试验船  - Xinyidai Zairen Feichuan Shiyan Chuan - New Generation Crewed Spaceship Test Ship

Here are more interesting translations:

spacecraft 飛船
flight 飛行
rocket 火箭
design 設計
orbit 軌道
test 測試
Lunar 月球
velocity 速度
moon 月亮
propellant 推進劑
crew 船員
launch 發射
technology 技術
generation 代
focus 焦點
current 當前
hardware 硬件
software 軟件

1 comment:

  1. You might be wondering what is happening with all the space debris out there.

    Here is an interesting recent news article about this topic.

    A Chinese rocket that became one of the largest pieces of space debris plummeted toward Earth and landed in the Atlantic Ocean on May 11.

    A Chinese rocket weighing 18 tons falls to Earth as space junk crisis hits a tipping point

    Read more about it here:
    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/16/chinese-rocket-falls-to-earth-space-debris-problem-worsens.html

    ReplyDelete