The Tianlong-3 rocket fell after an accidental liftoff during a test run What is a rocket power system test?

Upstream News

2024-06-30 20:21Upstream News official account

On the evening of June 30, Gongyi, Henan Province reported that "the rocket fell and caught fire during the test run". At 15:43 on June 30, 2024, Tianbing Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. carried out a test run of the launch vehicle (commercial) sub-stage power system at the Gongyi Comprehensive Test Center. The security zone is deep in the mountains, far away from residential areas. At present, the fire has been completely extinguished, and after investigation, there are no casualties.

Previously, the WeChat official account "Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd." issued a statement saying that at 3:43 p.m. on June 30, 2024, the Tianlong-3 liquid launch vehicle independently developed by Tianbing Technology carried out a hot test run of a sub-stage nine-machine parallel power system at the Comprehensive Test Center in Gongyi City, Henan.

On the evening of June 30, according to Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., a description of the test run of the first sub-stage power system of the Tianlong-3 large liquid launch vehicle.

At 3:43 p.m. on June 30, 2024, the Tianlong-3 liquid launch vehicle independently developed by Tianbing Technology carried out a hot test of a sub-stage nine-machine parallel power system at the Comprehensive Test Center in Gongyi City, Henan Province.

During the test run, a sub-stage rocket ignited normally, the engine thrust reached 820 tons, due to the failure of the structure of the connection between the rocket body and the test bench, a sub-stage rocket detached from the launch pad, after liftoff, the rocket computer actively shut down, the rocket fell into the deep mountains 1.5 kilometers southwest of the test bench, and the rocket body fell into the mountains and disintegrated. The test site is far away from Gongyi City, and before the test, we jointly improved safety and security measures with the local government and organized the evacuation of surrounding personnel in advance.

Tianlong-3 is a large-scale liquid launch vehicle tailored by Tianbing Technology for the construction of the mainland satellite Internet constellation, and its product performance is comparable to SpaceX's Falcon 9, with a diameter of 3.8 meters, a take-off mass of 590 tons, a low earth orbit (LEO) capacity of 17 tons, and a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) capacity of 14 tons.

The test run of the power system of the Tianlong-3 launch vehicle is the simultaneous ignition of nine TH-12 (Tianhuo 12) engines of a sub-stage, which is the largest thrust test of the launch vehicle in the development process of the mainland at this stage, and an increase of two times compared with the previous maximum thrust test of China's aerospace space.

What is powertrain commissioning?

The test run of the rocket power system is called "ignition without take-off". The power system test is the ground development test with the most systems, the most complex state and the most difficult in the development process of the launch vehicle, and it is also one of the most important pre-tests before the first flight of the rocket, which is very difficult.

In fact, the term "test run" is closely related to the development process of China's modern delivery vehicles. Trains and automobiles developed earlier, while airplanes and rockets were "rising stars", and because the interval between the two phases was not too long, technicians inherited the "jargon" habits of the early years in industry terms, and early ground testing of rocket engines was once called "driving".

Unlike rocket engine commissioning, powertrain commissioning is more complex.

The test run of the power system of the rocket is to install the rocket in the process of development on the test bench, and let the power system including the engine work together for a few seconds through ignition, so as to verify the accuracy of the rocket design and find the problems existing in the rocket development process, which is a test that the rocket is closest to the flight state.

Whereas, test flight is the abbreviation of flight test. As the name suggests, it is the process of conducting scientific research and product testing under real conditions, and the test objects are, of course, a variety of aircraft.

Tianbing Technology has completed 15 rounds of financing, with a financing amount of more than 4 billion yuan

Tianbing Technology is a Chinese private commercial aerospace company founded on April 10, 2019. The company is mainly committed to the research and development of a new generation of liquid rocket engines and medium and large liquid launch vehicles. In April 2023, Tianbing Technology's Tianlong-2 Yao-1 carrier rocket was successfully launched from China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, setting 8 commercial space records including the successful first flight of the world's private liquid rocket.

In early June, Tianbing Technology announced the completion of more than 1.5 billion yuan of C+ round of new financing, this round of financing by Liangxi Science and Technology Industry Fund of Funds (Bohua Capital Management), Wuxi Industrial Development, CCTV Fund, Guoyu Gaohua, Deyue Investment, Qianzhan Investment, China Securities Construction Investment, Jundu Investment, Hongfu Assets, Hefei Ruicheng, Suzhou Asset Management, Capital Development Venture Capital, SDIC Taikang, Binghong Capital, Zhongcai Tenghua and many other institutions jointly completed.

This round of funds will be mainly used for the first flight and mass production of the Tianlong-3 large liquid launch vehicle, the development of the Tianlong-3 recyclable product, and the mass production of the Tianlong-2 medium-sized liquid rocket.

According to the official website of Tianbing Technology, the Tianlong-3 rocket is the first large-scale liquid launch vehicle in domestic commercial space, the rocket adopts a two-stage configuration design, with liquid oxygen and kerosene as the main propellant, the rocket will complete the first flight mission in July 2024 as planned, and has more than 30 commercial launches per year within three years after the first flight.

Since its establishment five years ago, Tianbing Technology has completed 15 rounds of financing, with a total of more than 4 billion yuan of financial support. On April 2, 2023, Tianbing Technology's Tianlong-2 medium-sized liquid launch vehicle successfully made its maiden flight at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

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