2nd Ld-China Focus: New heavy-lift carrier rocket boosts China's space dream

China on Thursday launched its new heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-5.

The rocket, which looked much "fatter" than other rockets of Long March series, blasted off at 8:43 p.m. Beijing Time from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province. The payload was sent into a preset orbit about 30 minutes later.

The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence later announced the complete success of the launch.

The major targets of the mission are to verify the design and performance of the new rocket and test the flight program of the rocket, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the developer of Long March-5.

The Long March-5 is a large, two-stage rocket with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low-Earth orbit, the largest of China's carrier rockets. Its carrying capacity is about 2.5 times that of the current main model Long March carrier rockets.

According to the CASC, the rocket uses two kinds of fuel, kerosene/liquid oxygen as well as liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen, rather than highly toxic propellant, making it more environmental friendly and less expensive.

The rocket is about 57 meters long, with a takeoff weight of 870 tonnes and a thrust over 1,060 tonnes. It is equipped with eight liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket engines in four strap-on boosters, two liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines in the first stage and two relatively small liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engines in the second stage.

Li Dong, designer-in-chief, said the rocket was the most complicated of the Long March series with over 100,000 components instead of tens of thousands of components in other Long March rockets. Scientists conducted over 7,000 tests during its 10 years of development.

With a 5-meter diameter core stage, Long March-5 is much thicker than China's previous carrier rockets with 3.35-meter diameter core stages.

Other launch sites in China are located in inland areas. Accordingly, transportation of rockets relied on railways, so that rockets could not be too wide.

The rocket launched Thursday was taken to coastal Wenchang from the northern port city of Tianjin by ship in early September.

"It is not just a simple enlargement of the diameter, it raises new requirements of materials, manufacturing and equipment," said Lou Luliang, deputy designer-in-chief.

Lou said the new technology in Long March-5 would be used in other Long March series rockets in a bid to upgrade all rockets.

The heavy-lift carrier rocket is of great significance as China's space program relies on the carrying capabilities of launch vehicle systems.

With the heavy-lift carrier rocket, China can build a permanent manned space station and explore the moon and Mars.

In 2017, China will launch the Chang'e-5 probe to the moon, which will bring lunar samples back to Earth aboard the Long March-5. The 20-tonne core module of its first space station will also be delivered by the rocket in 2018.

The rocket will launch the Mars probe around 2021.

It is the second launch from the coastal Wenchang center. On June 25, China's new generation medium-sized Long March-7 made its debut at the site. Endi