China seems to have suffered from a long March launch failure

HELSINKI – The planned launch of a remote sensing satellite from Taiyuan, in northern China, could have ended in failure, the absence of an official statement suggesting a problem with the mission.

Airspace closure notices issued several days in advance indicate that a launch of a Long March rocket since Taiyuan was to take place between 18:45 and 19:06. Wednesday is (6:45 to 7:06 local time Thursday).

Amateur footage and imagery posted on seemingly consistent Chinese social media platforms with an early launch of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center suggests that the launch of a three-stage hypergolic rocket Long March 4C was held around 18:49. Is.

A successful launch is usually announced by the major space contractor, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), as soon as the spacecraft has entered the planned orbits. Wednesday's launch to place a remote sensing satellite in a helical orbit would probably have been followed by a successful announcement within the hour.

More than 12 hours after the apparent launch, no statements from the CCAC or governmental space authorities have been issued.

SpaceNews contacted the US Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron, responsible for situational awareness, including the detection, tracking, cataloging and identification of artifacts in orbit around the space of the Earth to get feedback on possible new objects in connection with the launch and is waiting for a response.

The launch took place inland, which means that exhausted rocket stages will fall

With the exception of major events such as crewed or lunar exploration missions, Chinese launches are rarely advertised openly. Indirect means such as NOTAMS – notices filed with aviation authorities to inform aircraft of potential dangers – are often the only indication of the imminence of launches.

Amateur aerospace watches in China were expecting the payload to be a Yaogan remote sensing satellite, designated Yaogan-33. Chinese state media generally state that the Yaogan series satellites are used for "electromagnetic environment and other related technology testing", but outside analysts consider satellites to be optical synthesis and optical synthesis radar satellites for military reconnaissance.

A similar launch in August 2016, also using a Long March 4C launcher, presumably carrying the Gaofen-10 satellite, belonging to a civil constellation of Earth observation, resulted in an apparent failure and also been followed by an official silence. The loss of the satellite has only been confirmed two weeks later by China Great Wall Industry Corp., a subsidiary of CASC.

With the launch of the Gaofen-10 being limited to the third stage, only used for the Long March 4C, developed by the CASC subsidiary, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), the other Long March flights were not affected. The aircraft carrier rocket flew only in November 2017 and launched in May 2018 the Queqiao relay satellite, precursor needed for the Chang'e-4 lunar landing on January 2nd.

If this is confirmed, it would be the first failure of the Chinese government in its launches since July 2017, while the second feature film of March 5 had experienced a first problem. The Long March 5 has since been suspended and a return flight scheduled for July, ad in January, seems to have slipped.

Cargo ships specially designed to transport the launcher components of 56 meters in diameter and 56 meters long from a manufacturing site located in Tianjin, in northern China, to the center launching of Wenchang satellites in the island province of Hainan, in the south of the country, remain moored on the Yangtze River. The two previous launches of March 5 have required two months of preparations in Wenchang, making it very unlikely to launch in July.

The third Long March 5 is expected to carry an experimental telecommunication satellite before the fourth launch of the Chang-e Lunar Samples Return Mission, scheduled for late 2019. The country's first independent mission on Mars is also expected to to be launched on March 5 in the next Hohmann transfer window, in July and August 2020, while the launch of the Long March 5B, a variant of low-Earth-orbit launch, is also planned for the first half of 2020, before to be able to launch the first module of the Chinese Space Station.

The above missions require a successful flight return of the Long March 5, which has undergone a redesign of its YF-77 liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen first-stage engines after the breakdown of 2017. Another slippage could exert a huge pressure on the schedule of the most ambitious space projects in China.

Wednesday's launch was China's ninth in 2019, with a first orbital launch attempt by private launch company OneSpace, which failed. This follows the failure of its commercial counterpart Landspace in its orbit in October 2018. The next attempt of the nascent sector of the Chinese private launch is expected from iSpace early June.