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China completes first launch from ocean launchpad

The new colonial movement: China today successfully completed its first launch from ocean launchpad, placing seven satellites in orbit with its Long March 11 rocket.

I have embedded a short video of the launch below the fold. It appears they have adapted submarine ICBM engineering for this ocean launch. The rocket is propelled upward from the launchpad before its first stage engines fire.

The rocket:

The Long March-11 (Chang Zheng-11) is a small solid-fueled quick-reaction launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) with the goal to provide an easy to operate quick-reaction launch vehicle, that can remain in storage for long period and to provide a reliable launch on short notice.

The leaders in the 2019 launch race:

8 China
6 SpaceX
5 Russia
4 Europe (Arianespace)
3 India

The U.S. leads China in the national rankings, 11 to 8.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
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5 comments

  • Andi

    “the goal to provide an easy to operate quick-reaction launch vehicle, that can remain in storage for long period and to provide a reliable launch on short notice”

    Wow, sure sounds like a typical military application

  • Andi: It is military rocket. They have simply re-purposed it.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Bingo. And you’re right about its heritage being SLBM – probably the JL-2 which has the same diameter. That explains the cold gas system used to fling it upward before the engine lights.

    The Russian Rokot, now retired, was launched from a similar-looking tube, but, given that its heritage was the Soviet-era SS-17 ICBM, Rokot’s 1st stage engines were lit while it was still in its launch tube as would have been the case for a land-based silo launch of the original ICBM version.

    The Russian Dnepr, a repurposed Soviet-era SS-18 heavy ICBM, doesn’t even bother with the fig leaf of a launch tube. It is launched out of a land-based buried silo just as its warshot ancestors were.

    The Long March-11 seems to be China’s equivalent of NGIS’s menagerie of Minotaur vehicles.

  • wodun

    Launch on demand assets are something the USA needs too.

  • John

    two comments
    1) since there is no apparent advantage in this launch method ( very complicated launch for 7 satellites) suspect this may be fine tuning a procedure to transport more dangerous items into orbit, that one wouldn’t want close to population centers.
    2) what the hell are vehicles and trucks doing on the platform in the middle of the ocean?

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