Latest / Spoken News / China's orbital rocket booster Long March 10B becomes the first recovered after launch using a net-based recovery system.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to spoken News. I'm a computer. China's orbital rocket
- 0:04booster Long March tenth B becomes the first recovered after
- 0:06launch using a net based recovery system. Long March tenth
- 0:10B is a two stage, medium lift, partially reusable launch
- 0:14vehicle developed by the China Rocket, a commercial launch provider
- 0:17and a subsidiary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle
- 0:20Technology of the China aeros Based Science and Technology Corporation.
- 0:25The rocket features a first stage powered by kerosene and
- 0:27liquid oxygen and a second stage powered by liquid methane
- 0:31and liquid oxygen. It is the third in the Long
- 0:34March tenth series of rockets and is derived using technologies
- 0:37developed for the Long March tenth A. The first launch
- 0:40of the rocket occurred at four fifteen on the tenth
- 0:43of July twenty twenty six from Launch Complex two of
- 0:46the wen Chan Commercial Space Launch site. The launch and
- 0:49booster recovery were both successful. The Long March tenth B
- 0:53debut launch became China's first successful orbital booster recovery and
- 0:57made China the second country to achieve rocket recovery after
- 1:00the United States. The Long March tenth B was also
- 1:04the first successful net based rocket recovery in history. A
- 1:08reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and
- 1:11reflown while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space.
- 1:15Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed
- 1:18for reuse. Smaller parts such as fairings, boosters, or rocket
- 1:22engines can also be reused. Though reusable spacecraft may be
- 1:26launched on top of an expendable launch vehicle, reusable launch
- 1:29vehicles do not need to make these parts for each launch,
- 1:32therefore reducing its launch costs significantly. However, these benefits can
- 1:36be diminished by the cost of recovery and refurbishment. Reusable
- 1:40launch vehicles may contain additional avionics and propellant, making them
- 1:43heavier than their expendable counterparts. Reused parts may need to
- 1:47enter the atmosphere and navigate through it, so they are
- 1:50often equipped with heat shields, grid fins, and other flight
- 1:53control surfaces. By modifying their shape, space planes can leverage
- 1:57aviation mechanics to aid in its recovery, such as glib
- 2:00or lift in the atmosphere. Parachutes or retrorockets may also
- 2:03be needed to slow it down further. Reusable parts may
- 2:07also need specialized recovery facilities, such as runways or autonomous
- 2:10spaceport drone ships. Some concepts rely on ground infrastructures such
- 2:14as mass drivers to accelerate the launch vehicle beforehand. Since
- 2:18at least in the early twentieth century, single stage to orbit,
- 2:21reusable launch vehicles have existed in science fiction. In the
- 2:25nineteen seventies, the first reusable launch vehicle, the Space Shuttle,
- 2:29was developed. However, in the nineteen nineties, due to the
- 2:32programme's failure to meet expectations, reusable launch vehicles were reduced
- 2:37to prototype testing. The growth of private spaceflight companies in
- 2:41the twenty tens lead to a resurgence of their development,
- 2:44such as in Spaceship I, New Shepherd, New Glen, Electron,
- 2:48Falcon nine, and Falcon Heavy. At the same time, the
- 2:51US Bowing X thirty seven and Chinese CSSHQ military space
- 2:55planes began deploying small satellites. Many launch vehicles are now
- 2:59expt act to debut with reusability in the twenty twenties,
- 3:03such as the US starship Neutron terin r Stoke, Space
- 3:07Nova and Eclipse, the Chinese Long March tenth and twelve
- 3:10TIANLNG three, land Space Zhuque three, and the European Maya
- 3:16and Mira five. The impact of reusability in launch vehicles
- 3:21has been momentous for the spaceflight industry. In twenty twenty four,
- 3:25the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station initiated a fifty year
- 3:29forward looking plan for the CAPE that involved major infrastructure
- 3:33upgrades to support a higher anticipated launch cadence and landing
- 3:36sites for the new generation of vehicles. A booster is
- 3:40a rocket used either in the first stage of a
- 3:42multi stage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer burning
- 3:45sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's take off, thrust
- 3:48and payload capability. Boosters are traditionally necessary to launch spacecraft
- 3:53into low Earth orbit, and are especially important for a
- 3:56space vehicle to go beyond Earth orbit. The booster is
- 3:59dropped to four back to Earth once its fuel is expended,
- 4:02a point known as booster engine cut off. Following booster separation,
- 4:06the rest of the launch vehicle continues flight with its
- 4:09core or upper stage engines. The booster may be recovered, refurbished,
- 4:13and reused, as was the case of the steel casings
- 4:16used for the Space Shuttle, solid rocket boosters. That's it
- 4:19for now. See the episode notes for Wikipedia sources and licensing.
- 4:23Thank you,