China Test Fires Engine for New Long March 5 Rocket

Posted
by
Doug Messier
on July 31, 2012, at 12:14 pm
in News
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Comments: 3 responses
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China’s new rocket engine has passed its 200-second test. The test took place in an open field 50 kilometres from Xi’an, capital of Shaan’xi province, in northwest China.

The engine was assembled three years ago and has already undergone two tests which lasted 600 seconds each. Sunday morning’s test was to determine if it remains in peak condition. The engine can carry a load of 25 tons. That’s 16 more than the engine in the Long March 2 F, which carried the Shenzhou-9 mission last month. The new engine is fuelled with kerosene and liquid oxygen. That enables a saving of almost 10 million yuan in propellant load.

China is the second country in the world to master the technology, after Russia. The engine will be used in the new Long March 5 rocket in 2014.

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  • Andy

    I missed something. China is the second country in the world to master *what* technology?

  • http://www.nickolai.me Nickolai_the_Russian_Guy

    The only technology I could think of would be oxygen rich preburners, which are used in the RD-170 family of engines. Americans have never been able to master the technology and even considered it impossible until they saw the Russians had done it.

    But preburners are typically used in closed cycle engines, in the video they showed there was clearly some sort of exhaust coming from the small nozzle to the left of the main engine, which would indicate this is an open cycle engine.

    So the question remains unanswered…

    DISCLAIMER: My screenname is simply a pun, please don’t politicize it.

  • Andy

    Thanks for the insight, Nickolai (and cheers to a fellow Boilermaker!).