This star is going to the moon

Chapter 426 The Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket will make its maiden flight next year! The US: Who threw out the smokescreen!
When Lu Yun announced the approval of the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket project, both the audience at the scene and the viewers in the live broadcast room had a "that's it" expression.

If this project information had been announced an hour earlier, they would have been shocked, but after hearing about the manned lunar landing mission first, their threshold was raised infinitely.

Moreover, with the manned lunar landing mission already underway, how dare you not approve the Long March 10 heavy rocket project?

Lu Yun laughed and said, "Although the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket project was only approved today, its progress is not zero, but over 70%!"

"!!!"

"Fuck!"

"real or fake?"

"Awesome plus!"

Ignoring the gasps from the audience, Lu Yun began to recount the latest payload capacity data for the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket.

Initially, the payload capacity of the Long March 10 Heavy rocket was relatively conservative. However, after optimization and design over time, the payload capacity of the Long March 10 Heavy rocket has increased significantly.

For example, the total near-Earth orbit capacity increased from 98 tons to 105 tons.

Of course, this is theoretical data. The heavy-duty Long March 10 will not perform such extreme missions because its hull structure cannot support it.

Just like the Falcon Heavy rocket, which has a theoretical payload capacity of 64 tons to low Earth orbit, its rocket structure cannot support such a weight.

However, the aerospace field recognizes this data, so the classification of the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket has changed.

In the aerospace field, rockets with a weight of less than 2 tons in low Earth orbit are classified as small launch vehicles.

Rockets with a low Earth orbit payload capacity of 2 to 20 tons are called medium-lift launch vehicles, such as the Wanhu rocket with a total payload capacity of 14 tons.

Moving up to the next level are large rockets, which require a low Earth orbit payload capacity of 20 to 50 tons. Therefore, the Falcon 9 rocket with a total payload capacity of 22 tons and the basic Long March 10 rocket with a total payload capacity of 32 tons, as well as the Long March 5 rocket with a theoretical payload capacity of 32 tons, fall into this range.

It's only theoretical because the Long March 5 rocket has an additional hydrogen-oxygen second stage, which significantly increases its low Earth orbit carrying capacity.

However, the Long March 5 rocket does not launch payloads into low Earth orbit.

The Long March 5B rocket launches payloads into low Earth orbit. It does not have a core two-stage rocket, but only four boosters and a first-stage rocket, as well as a huge fairing that is 20 meters long.

The main modules of the space station were transported by the Long March 5B rocket, which has a low Earth orbit carrying capacity of 25 tons.

When a rocket's low Earth orbit payload capacity exceeds 50 tons, it is considered a heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The Falcon Heavy rocket, with a theoretical low-Earth orbit payload capacity of 64 tons, falls into this category.

The original Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket, which consumed 98 tons of low-Earth orbit payload capacity, was also in this class, but it belonged to the "heavy-lift ultimate" level.

Because once the payload capacity to low Earth orbit reaches 100 tons, it becomes a super heavy rocket.

Historically, the Saturn V, with a near-Earth orbit payload capacity of 120 tons, was a typical example of a super-heavy rocket.

The SLS rocket, which claims to have made its maiden flight next year, is the Block 1 model, a basic version with a maximum payload capacity of only 95 tons to low Earth orbit, so it can only be considered a "heavy-duty" rocket.

It needed to be upgraded to the Block 1B model to be considered a super heavy rocket, which at that time had a low Earth orbit payload capacity of 105 tons.

It also has a further upgraded Block 2 version, which is said to have a low Earth orbit carrying capacity of 130 tons, officially surpassing its predecessor, the Saturn V.

The latest Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket now has the same low-Earth orbit maximum payload capacity as the SLS 1B rocket, making it a true super-heavy rocket.

However, it doesn't need to change its name, because its "heavy" means "more than ten times longer than the basic rocket," not referring to rocket classification.

And it's not a disposable rocket; it's designed for recycling.

The latest heavy-lift Long March 10 rocket has increased its low Earth orbit recovery capacity to 85 tons, and with its 7-meter diameter fairing, it can launch the heaviest space station in history, the Skylab.

That thing was the US's first space station. It was modified from the Saturn V's 6.6-meter diameter core three-stage rocket and weighed about 77 tons.

Of course, in reality, the 7-meter diameter fairing of the heavy-duty Long March 10 cannot contain it, because it also has a huge solar telescope on top, which makes its total length reach 36 meters, while the fairing of the heavy-duty Long March 10 is only over 20 meters long.

Before the Saturn V, when launching manned spacecraft, the rocket was just a small, pointed cone. To launch Skylab, the entire core third stage rocket was encased in a fairing. (Image from the internet)
"...The Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket is still a product of the 'technology integration theory,' and this theory is my forte!"

Pointing to the CG exploded view of the Long March 10 heavy rocket, Lu Yun spoke eloquently: "Its three first-stage boosters are all from the basic Long March 10 rocket, and its second-stage core is also from the basic model. It can be said that the technology is very mature."

"To increase its carrying capacity, the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket has been upgraded with an additional hydrogen-oxygen core three-stage rocket, bringing its height to 90 meters..."

(Image of Long March 10 rocket)

Lu Yun gave a detailed explanation of the mature technology of the heavy-duty Chang 10, briefly discussed the new technologies that needed to be overcome, and then dropped a bombshell.

"Therefore, the heavy-lift Long March 10 rocket can make its maiden flight next year!"

"Wow—"

This caused quite a stir at the scene.

The project was just approved today, and it's going to have its maiden flight next year?
Even those who are just watching the spectacle can hear Lu Yun say that the Long March 10 Heavy Rocket uses many mature technologies, but it is still a super-heavy rocket with a takeoff mass of 2300 tons and a takeoff thrust of over 3000 tons.

The basic Long March 10 is just a large rocket with a takeoff mass of 750 tons and a takeoff thrust of just over 1000 tons.

The near-Earth orbit transport capacity is 32 to 105, a huge difference.

But these words just happened to be said by Lu Yun, so all I can say is...

As expected of Lu Yun!
The audience at the venue needed to listen attentively, so their cheers were quickly silenced by Lu Yunxu's repeated prompting, but the live stream chat ignored this.

【Awesome! 】

[Road God is awesome!]

[First flight next year? Is this guy just talking big?]

Is there anyone who doesn't know Lu Yun? He developed the Wanhu rocket and the "Wooden Kite" class space shuttle in just one or two years; he's a famous "rapid-fire developer"!

Wow, he's that awesome! No wonder you guys call him the Road God.

If the Long March 10 heavy-lift rocket makes its maiden flight next year, wouldn't that be on the same schedule as the SLS large rocket?

Wow, that's true! So a manned moon landing in 2026 was really conservative!

Since Lu Yun has stated that the maiden flight will take place next year, the rocket is definitely not a problem. The key issue is the timeline for the lunar spacecraft and the lunar lander!

The new-generation manned spacecraft test vehicle, launched on the maiden flight of the Long March 5B rocket in May 2018, was the prototype of the lunar probe. It also tested a high-speed reentry speed exceeding 9 kilometers per second in high orbit, precisely to achieve the speed required for lunar return.

Yes, theoretically, our lunar lander and the US Orion lunar lander are at the same development stage, both waiting for the next unmanned lunar orbiter, while both countries' lunar landers are still nowhere to be seen.

Wow, if we calculate it this way, our lunar rockets and the Americans' lunar landers had their maiden flights in the same year, our lunar spacecraft were at the same development stage, and the progress of our lunar landers might even be around the same?

That's right, but given that the timelines were similar, why did we land a man on the moon two years later than the US?

Yeah, that's way too conservative...

………………

"Our calculations might be a bit conservative, guys!"

Inside the NASA office, someone was watching the live broadcast of China's Space Day and said something.

The others also frowned as the employee who could speak Chinese repeated the important bullet screen information.

"This is indeed a very tricky situation!"

"Perhaps 1926 was just a smokescreen!"

"We need more information. Will they release information about the lunar spacecraft and lunar lander later?"

(End of this chapter)