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Recently, the mainland has successfully developed a 10-meter-class rocket tank, which is twice the diameter of the current largest launch vehicle, the Long March 5, marking a new stage in mainland space technology. This important achievement is codenamed the Long March 9 super-heavy launch vehicle, and its development progress has been made public.
Worldwide, the development and commissioning of heavy launch vehicles has been a focal point of the space race. At present, the heavy launch vehicles that are already in service or under development in the world include the former Soviet Union's "Energy", the "Falcon Heavy" of the United States, the "Yenisei" of Russia, and China's Long March 9 and Long March 10. Among them, the United States' "Saturn V" successfully completed the lunar landing program, while the former Soviet Union's N1 heavy launch vehicle failed four launches, making the Soviet Union lose the lunar race.
The latest developments show that China is about to fly its first new generation of heavy launch vehicles called the Long March 10 in 2027. The rocket will be dedicated to lunar missions, and its carrying capacity will rival or even surpass the initial version of the U.S. space launch system's SLS rocket. The Long March 10 has reached a staggering height of 90 meters and has a diameter of 5 meters, the same diameter as the core stage of the Long March 5 rocket. It has three times the carrying capacity of the Long March 5 series of carrier rockets and has a takeoff mass of nearly 2,200 tons. In contrast, its development speed is also faster than that of the Long March 9.
According to the latest plans, the first flight of the Long March 10 is expected to be in 2027, so the earliest mission to the moon could be realized around 2030. However, from experiments to applications, space missions need to guarantee reliability, especially for manned missions, where safety is paramount. At the recent Thirty Years of Manned Space Achievement Exhibition, people were able to get a glimpse of the prototype of a new generation of manned spacecraft and lunar landers. The implementation of these supporting projects, as well as the advent of a new generation of manned launch vehicles, will pave the way for China's lunar landing program.
The Long March 9 carrier rocket plays an indispensable role. The development of the two types of rockets echoes each other, the Long March 10 rocket is mainly used for manned lunar missions, while the Long March 9 mission is more extensive, including the construction of a lunar base and a mission to Mars. The carrying capacity of these two types of rockets is 70 tons and 150 tons in low-earth orbit and 25 tons and 50 tons in Earth-Moon orbit respectively, and it can be seen that the carrying capacity of the Long March 9 carrier rocket is twice that of the Long March 10. In the new international situation, these two types of rockets represent the strength of China's aerospace science and technology. Although China started late compared to the traditional space powers of the United States and Russia, our pace of development has been rapid. With the completion of the construction of the space station, the lunar landing program will also become one of the important agendas in the future.
The development of the Long March-9 carrier rocket has undergone many modifications and demonstrations of configuration. Its design has gradually become clear, no longer limited to a bundled booster structure, but a 10-meter diameter light rod configuration, which is more than 100 meters high. This configuration enables the carrying capacity of the Long March 9 carrier rocket to surpass the American "Saturn V" rocket and become a super rocket that can compete with the American "Starship". However, due to the new development of the configuration of the Long March 9, its research and development progress is slower than that of the Long March 10. It is expected that the first flight of this type of rocket will be around 2030, which is similar to the realization of the Long March 10 lunar landing plan.
Overall, China's space exploration has made tremendous progress. The new generation of heavy launch vehicles, the Long March 10 and Long March 9, will provide strong support for China's lunar landing program and deep space exploration. At the same time, the US super-heavy launch system and starship spacecraft are also actively developing, and the space race is becoming more intense. Regardless, competition and cooperation in this area will continue to shape the future landscape of space exploration.
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