In 2024, China's major aerospace projects will achieve complete victory. Chang'e-6's first lunar far side sampling mission was successfully completed; the manned space project's four launches and two return missions were successfully completed, and the space station operated normally and stably; the Long March 12 successfully made its first flight, and the reusable rocket completed the first 10-kilometer flight in China and returned; the heavy-lift launch vehicle and other major missions were accelerated...
During the two sessions, the chief designer of the first model of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation revealed,This year, our country will successively debut multiple types of reusable rockets and conduct their first flights.
In 2024, the development of the new generation manned launch vehicle Long March 10 will be advanced in an orderly manner, and major breakthroughs in reusable rocket technology will also be achieved.
Chief Designer Rong said in an interview,Strictly speaking, the new generation of manned launch vehicles is a series, including at least two configurations.
One is the more familiar Long March 10, which was used to land on the moon. The other rocket is smaller in scale and is mainly used to transport people and cargo to the space station.
The latter is more suitable for recycling and reuse due to some characteristics of the configuration itself, so it is given a mission to make designs related to reuse and recycling.
At present, the overall progress of these two types of rockets is relatively smooth, and we will definitely meet with you as soon as possible.
In addition to the "national team", private aerospace companies are also developing reusable rockets, includingZhuque 3, Lijian 2, Tianlong 3, Pallas 1, etc.
On September 11, 2024, the Zhuque-3 VTVL-1 reusable vertical take-off and landing recovery test arrow independently developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace successfully completed a 10-kilometer vertical take-off and landing return flight test.
This is the first technical verification in China that has achieved secondary ignition of a vertical takeoff and landing return rocket in the air, "grid rudder-cooled attitude control-engine" joint guidance and control in a transonic high dynamic pressure environment, and engineering application of high-altitude wind real-time wind repair technology.
It marks that China's commercial aerospace has made a major breakthrough in reusable launch vehicle technology, and has taken a critical step towards realizing large-capacity, low-cost, high-frequency, and reusable space launches in the future.