China sent the Zhongxing-26 communications satellite into orbit Feb. 23, marking the resumption orbital launches following a pause for Chinese New Year. A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 6:49 a.m. Eastern (1149 UTC) from Xichang, southwest China, successfully sending Zhongxing-26 (ChinaSat-26) into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed launch success within the hour. Zhongxing-26 is based on the DFH-4E satellite bus and uses chemical and electric propulsion. It is China’s first satellite providing more than 100 gigabits per second (Gbps) and was developed by CASC’s China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). CAST states the satellite is equipped with 94 Ka-band user beams. This is 3.5 times more than the 26-beam, 20 Gbps, Dongfanghong-3B-based Zhongxing-16 launched in 2017. That satellite has been supplying connectivity to aviation passengers such as Sichuan Airlines’ Airbus A320 flights using Viasat in-flight connectivity equipment. Operator China Satcom describes the satellite as an important piece of national space infrastructure and helping to meet national requirements for connectivity. Zhongxing-26 will mainly provide broadband access for fixed terminals and aviation in shipbourne users in China and surrounding areas from 125 degrees East in the geostationary belt. The overall cost was 2.3 billion yuan ($333 million) according to a feasibility study.
Liftoff of the Long March 3B carrying the Zhongxing-26 (ChinaSat-26) satellite on Feb. 23, 2023. Credit: CAST
The launch was China’s first since Jan. 15, following which activities paused for Chinese New Year. It is the fifth Long March launch this calendar year, with CASC planning more than 60 launches in 2023. Various Chinese commercial companies plan to add 20 or more launches to the overall figure.
The mission is the first launch of the 56-meter-high Long March 3B in 2023. The three-stage rocket has four boosters and uses a hypergolic mix of hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide with a liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen third stage. The launcher is the workhorse for Chinese launches to GTO. Launching from inland at Xichang, the rocket has been the cause of numerous debris incidents downrange.
The Long March 7A, touted as a greener, new-generation launcher using kerosene-liquid oxygen and launching from the coast at Wenchang, is yet to ramp up its launch rate to replace the aging Long March 3B. It most recently launched a pair of classified satellites Jan. 9.
Scientists at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC and visiting Chinese counterparts conducted a series of spacecraft-rocket integration tests for a joint mission. The Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission is a joint mission of ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Teams conducted docking, satellite separation and impact tests with a prototype of the SMILE satellite developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the CAS (IAMCAS) and the payload adapter for the mission’s Vega-C rocket at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), CAS stated Feb. 13. It is the first time a Chinese team has conducted such tests at ESA facilities. Last year Airbus sent a structural thermal model of the payload module to Shanghai for integration with the IAMCAS platform and qualification of the satellite. SMILE is a Sino-European joint mission expected to be launched in April 2025, according to CAS’s National Space Science Center (NSSC). SMILE was last year slated for launch in November 2024, following a number of delays to the project. The three-year mission will study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere and knock-on effects in the ionosphere, as well as phenomena such as coronal mass ejections. It will operate in a highly inclined, highly elliptical orbit around Earth which will take it a third of the way to the Moon at apogee. The mission was selected in 2015 from 13 joint Sino-European proposals. SMILE originally targeted launch on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in 2021, but has faced a number of delays.
Satellite-payload adapter tests at ESTEC for the SMILE mission in February 2023. Credit: CAS
“SMILE was very early on in 2016 intended for launch in 2021. Following initial studies and programmatic arrangements for the mission, the launch date was revised to be towards end-2023 to mid-2024 on the basis of which it was adopted by the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) in 2019,” David Agnolon, SMILE project manager, told SpaceNews via email.
“Following a number of technical difficulties and programmatic evolutions, among which a significant impact due to Covid, the development faced a one-year delay. The mission is on-track for launch in 2025, which will be confirmed at the Critical Design Review foreseen to take place mid-2023.”
CAS provides the propulsion and service modules, satellite bus and takes charge of mission operations for the mission, while also providing Chinese-developed instruments. ESA will provide the payload module, launcher, AIT facilities. SMILE will carrying the SXI (Soft X-ray Imager) featuring Lobster-Eye optics and the SWCX (Solar Wind Charge eXchange) X-ray imager. The spacecraft have a wet mass of around 2,200 kg.
The collaborative project builds on earlier cooperation on the Double Star mission in the early 2000s and ESA participation in CAS’s first round of missions under the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science in the mid 2010s.
Exchanges between China and ESA with a view to sending European astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station later this decade have, however, stalled, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said last month.
SMILE may not be the only project to be realized from the joint ESA-CAS workshops which led to the selection of SMILE.
Chinese teams have gone on to conduct studies on some of the proposals including the Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelength (DSL) mission. DSL proposes to send an array of 10 small satellites into lunar orbit, using the moon as a shield from Earth interference to study faint signals from the early universe. It is now one of 13 candidates for acceptance under CAS’s “New Horizons” program.
Japan’s space agency JAXA aborted the long-awaited first launch of H3 rocket Feb. 16, when the rocket’s side boosters failed to ignite after main engine start. It was the latest in a series of setbacks for Japan’s years-long efforts to develop a more capable and cost-effective alternative to the nation’s current workhorse, H-2A. Live footage showed the 63-meter expendable rocket, decorated with Japan’s national flag on the core stage with two strap-on side boosters attached, standing idle at the seafront launch pad of Tanegashima Space Center when the countdown was over. “The main engine was ignited, but side boosters were not,” said the range control center, shortly after the rocket’s pre-announced launch window of 8:37-8:44 p.m. Eastern. “It is expected that it would probably take longer to examine the situation. The status of launch vehicle Test Flight No.1 will be announced to all launch operators as soon as it will be confirmed.” JAXA also left a short notice on its website: “Further information will be updated on the JAXA website.” The agency didn’t elaborate on what happened. It’s also not known yet how the agency will examine the issue — after rolling back the rocket to the hangar or at the launch pad. The planned launch was initially targeted for Feb. 14, but bad weather caused a two-day delay. Aboard the rocket was Advanced Land Observing Satellite-3 (ALOS-3), a 3-ton optical imaging satellite, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, which will follow in the footsteps of the original Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS). ALOS was launched in 2006 onboard an H2A and declared dead in orbit in April 2011. ALOS-2 is still operating after being launched in May 2014.
Japan’s journey to develop H3 was long and winding. JAXA began developing H3 in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in 2014. It is meant to replace H-2A that has been operational since August 2001 with a new one with “high flexibility, high reliability, and high cost-performance.”
The rocket’s inaugural launch was originally scheduled for March 2021, but was pushed back by around two years due to issues with the newly developed LE-9 first-stage engine.
The problems were first uncovered during qualifications testing in May 2020, which included cracked turbine blades in the LE-9’s turbopump assembly and a hole seared into its combustion chamber wall. To fix these, JAXA and MHI had to redesign the engine’s fuel turbopump and apply those same changes to the engine’s oxygen turbopump.
H3’s four variants
There are four variants of the H3 rocket, each in a unique configuration of LE-9 engines and side-mounted solid rocket boosters. The rocket can fly with zero, two, or four strap-on boosters and either two or three LE-9 first-stage engines in order to carry a wider range of payloads to a wider range of orbits. Depending on the version of the rocket, it can place a payload of at least 4 tons into a sun synchronous orbit (SSO), with a maximum capacity of 6.5 tons into a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). It’s a significant improvement from H-2A’s capacity of 3.8 tons to SSO and 4 tons to GTO. Future upgrades could make it possible for the rocket to deliver cargo to the moon, including the planned lunar Gateway that NASA is pursuing in cooperation with JAXA, the European Space Agency and others.
Japan’s new H3 rocket is designed to fly with zero, two, or four strap-on boosters and either two or three LE-9 first-stage engines in order to carry a wider range of payloads to a wider range of orbits. Credit: JAXA
The H3 rocket’s LE-9 is not only a more powerful engine than H-2A’s LE-7. It also employs a novel design, called an expander bleed cycle, that Mitsubishi was the first to introduce with its LE-5A upper stage engine. In addition, the H3 stands to be the first rocket to use an expander bleed cycle engine for its first stage, a design choice meant to yield higher engine thrust at the expense of efficiency.
On the price front, the launch cost of the H3 is reportedly around $50 million, half that of the H-2A.
Meanwhile, Japan has launched one orbital mission so far this year: a H-2A successfully delivered Japan’s IGS Radar 7 surveillance satellite to orbit on Jan. 25.
Commercial launch firm Space Pioneer announced new funding this week and will soon take a shot at becoming China’s first such company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket. Space Pioneer, full name Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd., announced Feb. 15 that it recently secured “B+ and “Pre-C” strategic funding rounds. The company says it has now raised nearly 3 billion yuan ($438 million) in funding since its founding in 2018. The company is also preparing for the upcoming launch of the Tianlong-2 kerosene-liquid oxygen medium-lift launcher from Jiuquan. A recent Chinese news report stated the launch would take place from Jiuquan spaceport, northwest China, in the first quarter of this year. Space Pioneer conducted a wet dress rehearsal with the rocket at a site near Tianjin last month before transporting it to Jiuquan. The Tianlong-2 is capable of carrying 2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 1,500 kg to a 500-kilometer-altitude sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). It features a 3.35-meter-diameter core, as with many Long March series rockets. If successful, the launch would make Space Pioneer China’s first privately-funded company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket, following a failed launch attempt of Landspace’s methane-liquid oxygen Zhuque-2 in December. The company reaching the pad also reflects the progress and growth of a Chinese commercial space sector over the past decade, with a range of companies planning more than 20 launches in 2023.
Space Pioneer's Tianlong-2 rocket. Credit: Space Pioneer
A post on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo suggests the engines powering the Tianlong-2 are YF-102 open cycle kerolox engines developed by China’s state-owned main space contractor CASC. The engines are manufactured utilizing 3D printing techniques. Tianlong-2 uses three engines in a triangular configuration.
Space Pioneer is already looking ahead to its next launch vehicle however. Funds raised in the two recent rounds are to be used for the development of the larger Tianlong-3 launcher and its rocket engines, construction of requisite launch facilities, and attracting talent.
Tianlong-3 will be a two-stage kerolox rocket with a reusable first stage. A Space Pioneer press release says the rocket will be capable of lifting 15 tons of payload to LEO and is targeting launching batches of up to 60 satellites per launch for China’s Guowang LEO communications megaconstellation. The company is targeting a first launch in early 2024, ramping up to a planned cadence of more than 12 launches per year from 2025.
The firm also plans a TL-3H version, which uses three cores in a similar fashion to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. It would be capable of carrying 68 tons to LEO. The TL-3M features a reusable spaceplane.
Space Pioneer and another recently emerging company, Orienspace, are moving directly towards medium-lift and heavier classes of launchers, whereas numerous earlier-established Chinese commercial firms looked to first develop lighter solid and liquid propellant rockets.
These trends appear to reflect early entrants initially looking to launch small satellites for private customers, being the apparent market, whereas China has more recently indicated that private firms can participate in launching both the national “satellite internet” project and sending cargo to the Tiangong space station.
Space Pioneer initially started out developing engines burning green propellant before changing direction. The firm also apparently scrapped development of the Tianlong-1 rocket.
Polish leading R&D aerospace entity: Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation (Łukasiewicz – ILOT) concludes 2022 with major advances in its strategic area of green space propulsion and sets off with announcing ambitious plans for 2023 and further technology developments. With 25 projects from the European Space Agency (ESA) since Poland’s accession to ESA 10 years ago, Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation became a R&D hot spot in space propulsion in Central-Eastern Europe. Completed and ongoing projects with key spacecraft integrators (i.e. Airbus Defence & Space, OHB and Thales Alenia Space), as well as established players in space transportation systems (i.e. ArianeGroup, Avio, Nammo) and major new space companies – the institute have the ultimate goal of bringing new components, technologies and subsystems to the international market. The major added value provided to the space sector is the introduction of new hydrogen peroxide technology. Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation secured its patents, regarding obtaining new grades of High Test Peroxide (HTP), in 20 countries worldwide. While obtainable concentrations can exceed 99.99%, most ESA and national contracts concern the 98% concentration. Researchers at Lukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation claim that meeting the MIL-PRF-16005 standard is not enough and to ensure real long-term storability and high performance, the purity of HTP shall be beyond the one described in the propellant’s current standard and such an approach is indeed used at Łukasiewicz – ILOT.
ILR-33 AMBER 2K – updated version of the first in the world space vehicle to use 98% HTP grades
The institute’s suborbital in-flight experimentation platform – the ILR-33 AMBER rocket has been the workhorse for propulsion and space transportation technologies development, including HTP. While in 2017, thanks to its green hybrid main stage, it became the first in the world vehicle to use 98% HTP grades as oxidizer (unlike heritage satellite and space transportation systems worldwide). After its three successful low-altitude flights its new version, AMBER 2K, was launched in late 2022 and its payload was successfully recovered from the Baltic Sea.
The 2K version of AMBER shall ultimately allow for launching few-kilogram payloads to the Von Karman Line. The unique configuration of the rocket (parallel staging despite its small size) and use of a hybrid rocket motor ensures versatility and capability of carrying out a plethora of missions. The first external customer and payload provider is the Polish new space company Thorium Space.
Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation is also active in a wider range of in-flight demonstrations. Another “first” in the world was achieved by launching a small rocket using a rotating detonation engine utilizing liquid propellants in late 2021. Moreover, the institute is responsible for the green propulsion system of the FROG-H vertical take-off vertical landing (VTVL) demonstrator under development with i.e. CNES within the European Space Agency’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. The small hopper will use a monopropellant systems utilizing HTP.
Green engines
Work on bipropellant systems with 98% HTP as oxidizer and involves work on thrust levels up to circa 5-8 kN, with focus on European reignitable upper-stages and exploration with deep-throttleability as one of the major requirements. Valves for throttleable systems are of major interest due to both European and other international lunar missions and Poland becoming a signatory of the Artemis Accords in 2022.
Developed engine reignitability is achieved, apart from using catalyst beds, by utilization of proprietary fuels hypergolic with 98% HTP. In 2022 the national HIPERGOL project was successfully commenced and the first in the world 5 kN green hypergolic regeneratively-cooled engine using 98% HTP as oxidizer was demonstrated.
Testing of a 5 kN green hypergolic regeneratively-cooled rocket engine using 98% HTP as oxidizer. Credit: Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation
Additive technology implementing the 2021 ECSS-Q-ST-70-80C standard is widely utilized thanks to the institute’s laboratory capabilities.
“Recent investments allow for additive manufacturing of regeneratively cooled thrust chambers with use of copper alloy. Extensive in-house non-destructive testing capabilities along high-temperature material testing allow to build-up a wide research service package apart from space propulsion system hot-firings,” explains Ph.D. Eng. Adam Okniński, director of Space Technologies Center at Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation and member of the Space Propulsion Committee of the International Astronautical Federation.
Small satellite green propulsion
Moreover, build-up of know-how regarding HTP grades, storability and material compatibility allowed for the transition from work on propulsion components to full system development. While in 2023 Poland will celebrate the 50th anniversary of launching orbital space flight hardware (developed at the institute), the first green spacecraft propulsion system, fully developed in-house, is to be launched onboard the PIAST satellite constellation in the next years. The system using 98% HTP is to have aluminium alloy tanks to ensure demisability. Development of full propulsion systems, for satellites ranging from nanosatellites to those of up to 200 kg of mass, is accompanied by work on a green liquid apogee engine for large platforms.
Sea level testing of the GRACE Liquid Apogee Engine using green storable propellants – work conducted for the European Space Agency. Credit: Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation
Space debris mitigation
Work on sustainable technologies is not only limited to green propellants and demisable tanks. Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation has been involved in four consecutive contracts from the European Space Agency regarding use of solid rocket motors in autonomous robust deorbiting systems. In 2019 the institute pre-qualified for ESA the world’s possibly first solid propellant meeting ESA Clean Space requirements (i.e. no metal powder content, long-duration storability and proneness to space radiation) as well as system-level performance requirements of large satellite integrators (i.e. high performance while unprecedented low burn rate). In 2023 work is accelerating with ESA projects on the solid rocket motor and its thrust vector control system. An additional recent study was ordered for the Polish Space Agency, proving also the interest regarding potential national missions.
Rocket and satellite propulsion laboratory and testing capabilities
Parallel work in over a dozen ESA projects in 2023 requires focus on facility expansion, which has been ongoing. Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation received inter alia EU funding from the 2014-2020 Regional Operational Programme of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship for the creation of a modern Rocket and Satellite Propulsion Laboratory Center. The investment, exceeding a total of EUR 12 million, will allow testing green spacecraft thrusters and engines in vacuum with focus on HTP and green fuels as propellants.
The investment shall also include a major expansion of chemical propellant laboratories. Director General of Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation, Ph.D. Eng. Paweł Stężycki, chair of EREA (European Research Establishments in Aeronautics), describes the new green rocket and spacecraft propulsion facility: “By the end of 2023 we shall expand our offer regarding providing research services to the international space sector with the ultimate goal of increasing the share of commercial contracts”.
Today most of the revenues of the institute in the domain of aviation come from commercial international cooperation and the ongoing growth in the space domain is expected to also increase its share of industrial contracts. The 4 rocket propulsion hot-firing stands focused on green propulsion at the institute’s premises shall be therefore available by the end of this year. Taking into account other 2 existing external hot-firing facilities used at its domestic partners and another external facility under in-house design, the institute shall have a total of 7 hot-firing facilities available – this it on the European map of major test centers in spacecraft and rocket propulsion. 5 wind tunnels, environmental testing with the region’s largest thermal vacuum chamber and numerous material testing laboratories combined with implementation of ECSS standards, makes the Warsaw based institute attractive for a wider scope of spacetech developments, not limited to propulsion and space transportation.
Human resources for space
The implemented infrastructure and R&D projects allow for human resource development and enhancement of cooperation with technical universities and non-governmental organizations. The modern laboratory base is available for students doing scientific internships. Łukasiewicz – ILOT already supports several of the 10 student associations in Poland working on small experimental rockets and propulsion systems, seeking top talent and building up the Polish ecosystem and potential in space propulsion and space transportation systems. Constantly expanding its engineering team, Łukasiewicz – ILOT has as of the beginning of 2023 over 100 engineers dedicated to this technical domain and over 1500 in total, what allows in-house development of purpose-optimized facilities including not only modern laboratories, but also mobile infrastructure such as: rocket launch pads, propellant loading facilities, mission control etc. Source: Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation.
Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation is one of the most modern research institutions in Europe, with traditions dating back to 1926. Its main focus is delivery of new technologies. Research and development activities are focused on practical issues and anticipating key trends in aerospace propulsion systems, structures and related new technologies – mainly for space and unmanned vehicles.
As for space technologies, Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation main goal is to conduct R&D activities on space propulsion systems (including novel solid, liquid and hybrid rocket motors and engines), green propellants (including development, handling and testing environmentally friendly propellants) and space transportation systems. Work is continuing on the use of concentrated and purified hydrogen-peroxide for rocket propulsion and recent efforts allowed major advances in the fields of: robotics, defense systems, energetics, remote sensing, etc.
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