Top 10 "Famous Scenes" in China's Aerospace Industry China's aerospace industry has ushered in another year of rapid progress, with significant achievements in manned spaceflight, Mars exploration, lunar exploration, and other fields. Today, let's take a look at the top 10 achievements made by China's aerospace sector over the past year. 1. A "Palace in the Sky": China Officially Enters the Space Station Era On April 29, 2021, the Tianhe core module of China's space station was successfully launched. Subsequently, it docked with the Tianzhou-2 and Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecrafts, as well as the Shenzhou-12 and Shenzhou-13 manned spacecrafts. A total of 6 astronauts have successively stationed in the module, marking that China's aerospace industry has officially entered the space station era. According to the scheduled plan, the Tiangong space station will welcome two experiment modules and several Tianzhou/Shenzhou docking missions in 2022 to complete the entire construction. Looking back to September 21, 1992, China's manned spaceflight project was just officially launched. After 29 years of unremitting exploration, a series of romantic names such as "Changzheng" (Long March), "Shenzhou", "Tianzhou", and "Tiangong" have gradually become a reality. Today, China is finally going to have its own "palace in the sky", and the "Tian Shen" astronauts can travel freely between heaven and earth, making the ancient Chinese myth of flying into the sky come true from a dream! 2. "Immortals" in the Sky: Space Station Applications Reach New Heights Building a space station is a milestone event that emerges after human manned spaceflight technology has developed to a certain level, and it is the pinnacle of human industrial civilization. It can promote the development of aerospace and even many related manufacturing industries, and is a necessary path for the technological development of any aerospace power. The Tiangong space station is not only of significant engineering significance but also of great importance for improving China's overall scientific and technological level. Compared with previous manned spaceflight missions that mainly aimed to achieve breakthroughs in technologies one by one, the Tiangong space station has entered a stage of "bumper harvest" from technological investment, emphasizing scientific exploration and practical application value, and building China's "space laboratory" for exploring the universe. Therefore, the first year of Tiangong's operation has also witnessed the rapid progress of China's manned spaceflight and scientific application cause. For example, the astronauts of the Tiangong space station have completed four high-difficulty extravehicular activities, each lasting 6-8 hours, much longer than the 20-minute extravehicular breakthrough achieved by Shenzhou-7 in 2008. Moreover, Wang Yaping has taken the "first step" of Chinese women in space. At present, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu are staying in space, and they are expected to work for about six months, which will surely break the record of the longest space stay by Chinese astronauts. In addition, the space station has achieved many technological breakthroughs such as rapid rendezvous and docking and radial docking, greatly enhancing the performance of related technologies. In terms of specific applications, the types and quantities of scientific experiments on the space station will also far exceed the sum of all previous missions. In terms of aerospace popularization, the "space classroom" with interactive activities between heaven and earth has also planted the seeds of aerospace in the minds of hundreds of millions of students. 3. Zhurong Rover "Descends": China's God of Fire Sets Foot on Mars On May 15, 2021, after a 296-day space journey, the Zhurong rover and its landing combination carried by China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe successfully landed in the southern part of the Utopia Planitia in the northern hemisphere of Mars, achieving an unprecedented major breakthrough in China's aerospace history: Tianwen-1 became China's first artificial Mars satellite; Zhurong became China's first Mars rover. Zhurong, named after the "God of Fire" in ancient Chinese mythology, successfully set foot on Mars! At present, Zhurong has exceeded its scheduled three-month working time and is still working normally on Mars. It has traveled more than 1400 meters, and every step is a new record in China's aerospace history of Mars exploration. Zhurong is also continuously sending various scientific research data revealing the mysteries of Mars to the Earth, and has become a model of international scientific research cooperation. It has conducted in-orbit communication relay tests with the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission, realizing a "space handshake" between China and Europe on Mars. 4. Xihe Satellite Launches, China Enters the Era of Solar Exploration On October 14, 2021, China successfully launched the first solar exploration scientific and technological test satellite "Xihe". Its important mission is to study the sun, the only precious star that humans can rely on, to deeply understand important physical processes such as the origin and evolution of its magnetic field, and the acceleration and propagation of high-energy particles, allowing China to formally enter the era of solar exploration. Xihe is the name of the mother of the sun god in ancient Chinese mythology. Using such a special name to describe a satellite that explores the origin of the sun is quite romantic. In addition, another protagonist in the sun myth, "Kuafu", is also in the making. It will be a solar observatory facing the sun 24 hours a day, revealing every move of the sun for us. Xihe exploring the sun and Kuafu chasing the sun are new myths written by China's aerospace industry in the process of studying the sun. 5. Nothing is Too Difficult, Changzheng Rockets Break Launch Records In 2021, Chinese rockets achieved a total of 55 launches, not only ranking first in the world but also helping human aerospace break the highest rocket launch record in history. Among them, the number of launches of the Changzheng series rockets exceeded 400, with 48 rockets and 103 spacecrafts launched throughout the year, setting a new annual record for launch missions. It took 37 years for the Changzheng series carrier rockets to reach the 100th launch; 7 more years to reach the 200th; more than 4 years to reach the 300th; and only more than 2 years to reach the 400th. In the intensive launch missions in 2021, the shortest interval between two launches was only over 4 hours, and even 4 missions were carried out intensively within 7 days, achieving consecutive successes. With the rapid increase in the number of launches, the quality and quantity of the launched payloads are also rising, which are the most direct proofs of the rapid progress of China's aerospace industry. The name of the Changzheng rocket comes from Mao Zedong's famous poem "Seven-character Verse: The Long March", written in October 1935, when the Long March was not yet completely over. The poem describes the Red Army's spirit of fearing no difficulties and forging ahead during the Long March, with the most famous line at the beginning: "The Red Army is not afraid of the difficulties of the long march, and regards thousands of rivers and mountains as nothing." In the future, the Long March will continue! 6. Changzheng-7A Returns, Changzheng Rockets Expand Historically After the setback of its first launch, the Changzheng-7A rocket finally made a triumphant return on March 11, 2021, and made new achievements on December 23! The Changzheng-7A rocket is an expansion based on the Changzheng-7, absorbing the advantages of the gold-medal rocket Changzheng-3B, and realizing a three-stage and a half configuration. The entire Changzheng-7A rocket uses non-toxic and safe propellants, focusing on high-orbit missions. Its carrying capacity, especially the geosynchronous transfer orbit capacity, has increased to the 7-ton class at once, filling the gap in China's carrying capacity between 5.5 tons and 7 tons in the geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Changzheng-7A adopts the design concept of "generalization, serialization, and combination", making it easy to realize mass production and high-density launches. It also tested the Ka-band 6M satellite data space-based measurement technology for the first time, directly reaching the Tianlian relay satellite, greatly reducing the dependence on the Yuanwang aerospace measurement ships, and will gradually open a new era of telemetry for Changzheng rockets. 7. Space Beacon Towers, "Tianlian" Links Heaven and Earth The rotation of the Earth is a huge obstacle to the telemetry of aerospace missions. When a spacecraft cannot be observed by ground and sea telemetry stations, it will enter a communication blind zone. For this reason, our solution is to build a signal relay path linking heaven and earth over the equator at an altitude of 35786 kilometers, just like "space beacon towers", allowing smooth information interaction. China's relay satellite communication system is named "Tianlian". After several years of construction, the Tianlian-1 system was officially completed on July 6, 2021. At the same time, the Tianlian-2 system has also been launching satellites one after another, with a series of upgrades on the basis of the previous one. Students' unimpeded participation in the "space classroom", astronauts' use of super "space Wi-Fi" in space, and the free travel of Changzheng rockets and space shuttles in space are all inseparable from the hard work of Tianlian behind the scenes. 8. The Wonderful Journey Continues, Chang'e Lunar Exploration Achieves More Historic Breakthroughs Chang'e-3 allowed humans to land on the moon again after 37 years, Chang'e-4 allowed humans to land on the far side of the moon for the first time, and Chang'e-5 allowed humans to obtain lunar samples again after 44 years. At present, more wonderful breakthroughs are still ongoing. In 2021, China's aerospace industry publicly released 1731 grams of lunar soil samples obtained by Chang'e-5 and distributed them to scientific researchers at home and abroad for research. Due to the almost perfect launch and control of Chang'e-5, there is a large amount of propellant remaining in its orbiter, so it has begun to complete various difficult "additional tasks". After sending the lunar soil samples back to the vicinity of the Earth, it crossed the ecliptic plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun at 13:29 on March 15, 2021, and successfully reached the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1, 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth, which is the first time that China's aerospace industry has completed this task! At present, it is still traveling in deep space. Moreover, Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2 are still working beyond their scheduled time on the far side of the moon, continuously revealing the mysteries of this never-before-seen lunar surface (due to tidal locking, most of the far side of the moon can never be seen from the Earth). 9. Heavy Equipment Emerges, Manned Lunar Landing is Promising in the Future China's existing manned spaceflight mainly relies on Changzheng rockets (2F, 5, 5B, 7), Shenzhou spacecrafts, Tianzhou spacecrafts, and Tiangong space station, but they are far from sufficient for future manned lunar landings and deep space exploration. China has decided to carry out manned lunar landings in the future, and a series of preparations are already in place. For example, the new manned spacecraft test vehicle has successfully test-flown, and the new manned rocket and heavy-lift launch vehicle have entered the intensive research and development stage. The new type of rocket has become the focus of manned lunar landing. A workman must sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well. The core of a rocket is the engine. In 2021, the 220-ton staged combustion cycle hydrolox engine for the heavy-lift launch vehicle completed its first engineering prototype and made a stunning appearance at the 11th Institute (Beijing) of the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, marking the successful completion of the key stage development of the engine. Perhaps a comparison can better illustrate its significance: the Changzheng-5 is China's currently most powerful rocket, and its core liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen engine YF-77 has a thrust of about 70 tons in vacuum, "only" about one-third of that of the new engine. Although the thrust of the new engine is three times that of the old one, the difficulty and technical complexity of research and development are far more than three times. 10. Flourishing on All Fronts, China Will Move Toward Further Deep Space In 2021, the number of human rocket launches exceeded the peak during the Cold War, which also indicates that a new space age has officially arrived. This era of opportunities may far exceed the significance of the previous era of navigation, land power, and aviation for the current world powers. As the Chinese nation, which has suffered a lot in the past and is now in the process of great rejuvenation, we must not miss this opportunity. China Ranks First in the World in the Number of Aerospace Launches In the past 2021, although the epidemic was still severe, human aviation industry still achieved significant results. In the past year, human orbital launches reached 144, breaking the historical record during the Cold War. Among them, China contributed the most launches, totaling 55, surpassing the United States' 45 and Russia's 25, ranking first in the world. The achievements made by China in the aerospace industry in the past year have attracted worldwide attention, which can be described as a burst of accumulated strength, and this "burst" has soared into the sky. Of course, these achievements are also inseparable from the contributions of the predecessors in the aerospace industry. Without their solid foundation, China's aerospace industry would not have developed so rapidly. In 2022 and the next few years, China's aerospace industry still has many major plans, including lunar landing, exploration of Mars and the sun, etc. China's aerospace world will usher in a brilliant era! In 2021, due to the rapid progress of China's aerospace industry, the number of human orbital launches has increased significantly, exceeding the 139 launches during the Cold War, reaching a new record of 144. The direct reason why humans could launch 139 orbital launches in 1967 was the hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union. In order to seize "space hegemony", the two sides carried out a "space race". At that time, many launches were to complete political tasks, and both the quality of the launches and the final achievements were far from comparable to those now, and even the quantity has been successfully surpassed. This represents that human aerospace industry has entered a new era, an era in which China occupies an important position. Among these 144 launches, China accounted for more than one-third, making it a well-deserved aerospace power. Of course, the numbers of the United States and Russia are also very impressive, with a total of 70 launches. Whether on Earth or in space, China, the United States, and Russia have always been the three countries with significant influence. Summary At present, China's aerospace industry is still moving forward steadily. It is expected that in 2022, China's aerospace industry will continue to maintain a high frequency of rocket launches. China and Russia have also issued a high-level joint statement on cooperating in the construction of an international lunar research station, meaning that the two sides will join hands to set foot on the moon. The fourth phase of the Chang'e lunar exploration missions, such as Chang'e-6, 7, and 8, have also been officially approved. The China National Space Administration has also officially announced that China will carry out near-Earth asteroid sample return and main-belt comet orbiting exploration missions around 2025, realizing near-Earth asteroid flyby detection, attachment, and sample return; around 2030, carry out Mars sample return missions; in addition, will carry out Jupiter system orbiting exploration and planetary flyby detection missions. It can be said that this is an era of stars and seas, and Chinese aerospace workers are the trendsetters riding the waves. They not only make a series of Chinese myths come true from dreams but also continue to create new space myths in this corner of the universe. Source: Space Craft Brewing, Military Review