China has unveiled the two-stage reusable configuration of the Long March 9 heavy-lift rocket at the ongoing 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, which opened in south China's coastal city of Zhuhai on Tuesday.
Designed with an idea of modular, universalization and serialization, the heavy launch vehicle has three planned configurations - a three-stage version, a two-stage version and a two-stage completely reusable version.
The reusable configuration is highlighted by the rocket designer - the First Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation – at this year's Zhuhai Airshow.
"The heavy-lift rocket has a capacity of 100 tons in low-Earth orbit and 50 tons in lunar transfer orbit, which can cover the launch needs of various space missions from low orbit to deep space exploration," said Chen Ziyu, a designer at the institute.
The designer said that they will achieve the heavy carrying capacity and full reuse of the rocket in two steps. The first step will focus on building the basic model of the heavy rocket to greatly improve the country's ability to access the space, and the second step will be building a two-stage fully reusable configuration to largely reduce costs and increase efficiency of launching and recovering rockets, enabling the country to have the capacity of large-scale regular space transportation.
"Our ultimate goal is to have a two-stage fully reusable configuration. And different configurations can be adapted to the launch needs of missions to different orbits," Chen said.
The highly-anticipated biennial aerospace trade event, also known as Airshow China, will run through Sunday. It has attracted 1,022 companies from 47 countries and regions to showcase their star aviation and aerospace products, including a record number of products being debuted to the public at the event.
China unveils two-stage reusable configuration of Long March 9 heavy-lift rocket
