The pace of development of China's aerospace industry is very fast, from artificial satellites to space stations, China's aerospace industry has become one of the world's leading aerospace industries. We are glad at the success of each launch, and the word "launch success" has now become commonplace.
But in 2020, in less than a month, the mainland's launch vehicle failed to launch twice in succession!
After the incident, there was a small uproar, and some people carefully analyzed the cause of the accident, and others linked it to the previous one, saying that it was probably related to the United States.
What is the truth of the matter?
Failure is not accidental
On April 24, 1970, the Long March-1 carrier rocket carried the "Dongfanghong-1" satellite into the sky, and the roar of the giant dragon shook the sky, which opened the prelude to China's exploration of the universe.
In more than 50 years, the mainland has completed the networking of Beidou satellites, completed the launch of manned rockets, has its own space station, and has successfully recovered samples from the moon.
More and more of China's footprints are staying in space, making great strides in the mainland's space industry, and in the minds of most Chinese people, China's space exploration missions are mostly successful.
Every time the Chinese red that represents success lights up, that is the proudest moment for people, but do you know what is hidden behind these successes?
We've had failures, not once or twice, but several times. The most serious was the launch of the Long March-3B carrier rocket in Xichang, Sichuan Province, in the early morning of February 15, 1996.
This rocket was the rocket with the largest space carrying capacity in China at that time, and when it was launched, all the scientific researchers stared at the ignition of the rocket, but the accident happened unexpectedly.
After only two seconds of flight, the rocket was launched in a deflected direction, and about 22 seconds into the flight, the rocket hit its head on a nearby hillside.
How strong was the power to launch the rocket? We can imagine that after the launch failed, the rocket exploded violently on impact, destroying all the stars and arrows, and the explosion even affected the surrounding residents, eventually killing six people and injuring 57 others.
After paying a huge price, the researchers carefully analyzed the causes, learned from the experience of failure, and repeated simulation tests to ensure the success of each time.
Even if you are cautious, failure is always inevitable. No one dares to say that they are 100% successful, but there is no doubt that every launch is the result of the efforts of all scientific researchers.
Since entering the 21st century, there has been little news of failure in China's aerospace industry, but in 2020, the Long March series of rockets failed twice in succession.
Two launches failed in less than a month
The first took place on March 16, 2020, at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China, where the mainland launched the first mission of the Long March 7A rocket, which had already had a successful experience.
The Long March 7 is a new generation of medium-sized launch vehicle developed by the mainland to launch cargo spacecraft, which was successfully launched as early as 2016.
After four years, not to mention how much technology has progressed, at least there will be no accidents. The Long March 7, launched in 2020, is based on the original rocket, and a new generation of medium-sized high-orbit three-stage liquid strap-on launch vehicle has been developed, known as the Long March 7A rocket.
The launch of the rocket still made everyone fearful, the launch mission went smoothly, the engine ignition was normal, and the altitude and speed of the flight were perfectly in line with the theoretical values.
But 162 seconds after ignition, the rocket's flight curve went wrong, and the rocket finally failed to launch, which made everyone worry about it.
Most of the year's hard work was in vain, and the researchers here are still trying to find problems to solve, and the launch vehicle on the other side has an accident.
ON APRIL 9, 2020, AT THE XICHANG SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, THE MAINLAND WILL USE A LONG MARCH-3B CARRIER ROCKET TO LAUNCH THE INDONESIAN PALAPA-N1 SATELLITE.
In terms of launching satellites, the mainland was already handy, Beidou was about to complete the network, and the Long March-3B carrier rocket was the high-orbit carrier rocket with the largest launch volume and relatively high maturity in China.
The success of Changsanyi's previous launch is obvious to all, and continuous launches can be successful, and there should be no problem this time. So Chang Sanyi undertook the launch mission, after all, no matter how you say it, Chang Sanyi is also a signboard.
Who would have thought that this accident was quite big. At that time, the weather was clear, people's vision was wide, and the flight trajectory of the rocket could be clearly observed, so at the time of launch, many people were still looking forward to it.
After the ignition, many people saw the launch of the rocket, the first and second stage flights were normal, under the clear blue sky, the separation of the rocket booster was very obvious, but during the third stage flight, the rocket was abnormal, the satellite launch failed, and the wreckage fell.
This time, not only the astronauts, but also the people who watched the rocket launch sighed in their hearts, if this accident was all their own, then it would be easy to say that the after-the-fact analysis and summarization of the causes would be greater, at most, the losses would be greater.
But this time the carrier rocket launched an Indonesian commercial communications satellite, and such an accident is equivalent to smashing its own signboard.
The launch of the Indonesian satellite is no secret, and many people in the international community are waiting and seeing, success is expected, failure is unexpected.
In less than 30 days, China's space launches have failed one after another, which can't help but make people wonder why there is a phenomenon of "regression" in the space field.
Reasons for the failure of the launch
Some experts pointed out that the failure of the two rocket launches does not rule out that it is related to the United States. With the progress of scientific research and technology on the mainland, the United States has already listed us as its biggest opponent.
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Space Force plans to purchase 48 jamming systems by 2027 to jam Russian and Chinese communications satellite signals.
When the mainland carried out these two launch missions, the US Space Force had already completed the installation of 16 systems, and the launch of the mainland happened to be just after the completion of the deployment.
The intentions of the United States are so obvious, and then there were such accidents on the mainland, especially the Long March-3B rocket, which was successfully launched dozens of times.
This kind of analysis instantly caused a wave of heat on the Internet, and since then, various rumors have appeared on the Internet, saying that this incident has nothing to do with the United States, that is, they want to contain the rise of the mainland, and so on.
Is that really the case? We have no evidence that the United States didn't do it, and we don't have any evidence that they did it.
When something like this happens, we can only find the reason from ourselves, why did the Long March 7A rocket fail to launch, and why did the experienced Long March 3B rocket fail to launch? Is there a connection between the failures of the two?
Afterwards, the staff gathered together to find the cause of the failure, and after some inspection, Changqijia was likely to be due to insufficient pressure at the inlet of the booster oxygen tank engine.
To put it simply, after the launch of the rocket, there are not enough parts for the engine to work. They immediately carried out a scale-down test to demonstrate the results, because of the impact of the new crown, the progress of their test at that time was greatly hindered, but fortunately, the fault was finally located, and they were in full swing to prepare for the next rocket flight.
The problem of the mature technology of the long three B, Indonesia revealed the specific reason, the third stage of abnormal work, because one of the engines did not successfully ignite, and finally led to the flight altitude of only 170 kilometers, the satellite could not be put into orbit, the stars and arrows were destroyed, and fell into the sea.
The reasons for the two times boil down to their own problems, but because of the mainland's high-intensity continuous launches, two accidents occurred in a row in less than a month, one of which was a commercial communication satellite, which attracted people's attention.
As the saying goes, failure is the mother of success, and no one can guarantee 100 percent success.
In the past 50 years, the mainland has achieved a number of technological breakthroughs, and it has successfully been at the forefront of science and technology.
Failure is not a bad thing, it allows us to see where the problem lies, it allows us to slow down from time to time, so that we do not make mistakes again and again, and more importantly, it allows us to see the strength of the new generation of young people in our motherland.
Set sail
After the failure of the Changqijia launch, a junior high school student wrote a letter to the scientific researchers of the Wenchang Launch Center, which contained nearly 1,000 words, in addition to expressing his heartache and encouragement to the scientific researchers, but also carefully analyzing the reasons for the failure.
Through the launch video, the junior high school student reasoned that the problem might be focused on the engine, and the logic of the words surprised everyone. After the letter was posted on the Internet, it instantly caused a wave of heated discussions and admiration.
The patriotic heart of the new generation of young people, they represent the hope of the future, and the future of China's aerospace lies in these young people.
In this regard, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League issued a document saying: "Children, please continue to keep your love!"
Despite the impact of the new crown in the outside world, even though there are many doubting voices, China's aerospace industry has set sail again.
The Chang-7 Yao-1 launch failed, and the Chang-7 Yao-2 resumption work began to advance rapidly. After more than 300 days of hard work, on March 12, 2021, the Chang-7 Yao-2 rocket successfully carried out the mission.
In 2021, Chang Qi and four arrows were fired, all of which successfully completed the task.
Failure is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a stepping stone to success, we ourselves are in the failure again and again to sum up experience, to overcome all the problems and weaknesses, to organize a new launch, success is the perfect answer to China's aerospace to the outside world!
Write at the end
The carrier rocket is named after the Long March, which represents the spirit of the older generation and implies that the mainland's rocket industry will overcome difficulties and reach the other side of victory like the Long March.
Failure makes us progress, even if the storm comes, we are still firm, and I believe that after the storm, China's aerospace industry will surely reach a higher level.
Resources:
1. China Youth Network, March 15, 2021 - "Children, Don't Stop Love! After the Rocket Launch Failure, Junior High School Students Write Letters to Scientific Researchers"
2. Beijing Daily client, December 23, 2021 - "Chang-7 Series Rockets: From the First Flight Failure to Four Launches in a Year"
3. Beiqing.com, March 15, 2021 - "Everyone is racing against time, more than 300 days and nights of the Long March 7A rocket returning to flight"
4. Xinhuanet, April 9, 2020 - "PALAPA-N1 Satellite Launch Failure"
5. Chinese government website, February 18, 2016 - "China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation: "The first flight of the Changsanyi rocket failed in 1996 and killed 500 people" is untrue"
6. Qin'an Strategy, April 24, 2020 - "What is the relationship between the deployment of space interference by the U.S. military in March and the subsequent failure of the Long March rocket launch"