In a surprise launch, China debuts another big rocket designed for reusability
In a surprise launch, China debuts another big rocket designed for reusability
中国突袭发射：又一枚旨在实现可回收的大型火箭亮相
The race to field China’s first reusable launch vehicle is far less predictable than a similar competition that played out in the United States a decade ago. There was never any real question of which company would develop and demonstrate the first reusable orbital-class rocket in the United States. SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster for the first time in 2015, and a little more than a year later, it launched it back into space. It took nearly 10 years for anyone else to do the same. Blue Origin celebrated its first orbital-class booster landing last November with the successful recovery of one of its New Glenn boosters, followed by a relaunch of the same rocket in April.
中国首枚可回收运载火箭的竞赛，远比十年前美国的那场竞争更具不可预测性。在美国，谁将率先开发并验证首枚轨道级可回收火箭，从未有过真正的悬念。SpaceX 在 2015 年首次成功回收了猎鹰 9 号助推器，并在一年多后将其再次发射升空。而其他公司花了近 10 年时间才做到这一点。蓝色起源（Blue Origin）去年 11 月成功回收了其“新格伦”（New Glenn）助推器，并在今年 4 月实现了该火箭的复飞，完成了其首次轨道级助推器回收。
In China, several companies and state-owned enterprises have a realistic shot at landing an orbital-class booster stage this year. For a time, it seemed like China’s new crop of privately funded launch companies might have the advantage in accomplishing the first landing of an orbital-class booster. But Monday’s launch of China’s Long March 12B rocket, backed by the nearly unrestricted resources of the country’s vast state-owned aerospace enterprise, suggests the industry’s legacy players may now have a leg up.
在中国，多家公司和国有企业都有望在今年实现轨道级助推器的着陆。曾几何时，中国新涌现的民营航天公司似乎在率先实现轨道级助推器回收方面占据优势。但周一发射的长征十二号乙（Long March 12B）火箭，在国家庞大国有航天企业几乎不受限制的资源支持下，表明该行业的传统巨头可能已占据上风。
Secrecy reigns
笼罩在保密之中
China’s first two attempts to recover heavy boosters failed in December. First, a company named LandSpace, part of China’s recent wave of quasi-commercial launch providers, debuted its Zhuque 3 rocket on December 2. The launch was successful, but the booster crashed near its landing zone downrange from its launch site in the Gobi Desert of northwestern China. Less than three weeks later, a somewhat less powerful rocket named the Long March 12A had a similar result on its first test flight. The Long March 12A is a product of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, part of China’s legacy government-owned space industry.
中国去年 12 月进行的两次重型助推器回收尝试均告失败。首先是 12 月 2 日，中国新一代准商业航天发射服务商之一的蓝箭航天（LandSpace）首飞了其“朱雀三号”火箭。发射虽然成功，但助推器在位于中国西北戈壁沙漠的发射场下游着陆区附近坠毁。不到三周后，一枚动力稍弱的“长征十二号甲”（Long March 12A）火箭在首次试飞中也遭遇了类似结果。长征十二号甲是上海航天技术研究院（SAST）的产品，属于中国传统的国有航天工业体系。
In early April, another relative newcomer to China’s launch sector launched its new medium-class Tianlong 3 rocket. The 7-year-old firm behind the Tianlong 3, named Space Pioneer, said the rocket failed to reach orbit, an outcome not uncommon for brand-new launch vehicles. Tianlong 3’s first stage booster is designed for recovery and reuse, but a landing attempt will have to wait until a future flight.
4 月初，中国航天领域的另一位“新秀”发射了其新型中型火箭“天龙三号”。天龙三号背后的公司——成立于 7 年前的天兵科技（Space Pioneer）表示，火箭未能进入预定轨道，这对于全新的运载火箭来说并不罕见。天龙三号的一级助推器设计目标是回收和重复使用，但着陆尝试只能留待未来的飞行任务。
The Long March 12B, the largest and most powerful (potentially) reusable rocket China has launched to date, lifted off Monday from a remote launch pad in the Gobi Desert. The 236-foot-tall (72-meter) rocket took off at 4:40 pm Beijing time (08:40 UTC or 4:40 am EDT). Unusually, Chinese officials appear not to have announced the launch in advance. The Chinese government did not issue any public notices for pilots to avoid the rocket’s flight path, as is customary for space launches around the world. It’s too soon to know if this was a one-off change or the start of a new policy for Chinese launches.
长征十二号乙是迄今为止中国发射的体积最大、动力最强（且具备潜在可回收能力）的火箭，于周一从戈壁沙漠的一个偏远发射台升空。这枚高 236 英尺（72 米）的火箭于北京时间下午 4:40（世界协调时 08:40 或美国东部时间凌晨 4:40）起飞。不同寻常的是，中国官方似乎并未提前宣布此次发射。中国政府也没有像全球航天发射惯例那样，向飞行员发布避开火箭飞行路径的公开通知。现在判断这是否是一次性的变动，还是中国航天发射新政策的开始，还为时尚早。
The existence of the Long March 12B was not a secret. The rocket completed a test firing on its launch pad in China in January, and a launch was expected in the first half of this year. It was developed by China Commercial Rocket Co. Ltd., or CACL, an opaque business venture set up by China’s sprawling state-owned aerospace enterprise. According to Chinese state media reports, engineers designed and developed the Long March 12B in just 21 months. If the claim is true, it would be a remarkably fast timeline to progress from a clean sheet to an orbital flight.
长征十二号乙的存在并非秘密。该火箭于 1 月在中国完成了发射台测试点火，预计在今年上半年发射。它由中国商业航天有限公司（CACL）开发，这是一家由中国庞大的国有航天企业设立的、运作模式较为隐秘的商业实体。据中国官方媒体报道，工程师仅用了 21 个月就设计并开发出了长征十二号乙。如果这一说法属实，那么从零开始到实现轨道飞行，这一进度快得惊人。
Monday’s launch did not include any attempt to land the first stage booster, but the rocket carried grid fins and landing legs, important hardware elements for future recovery experiments. A statement released by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), CACL’s parent company, declared the first flight of the Long March 12B a “complete success” in a post-launch statement. “This launch adds another high-capacity commercial rocket to [China’s] fleet for large-scale Internet constellation networking missions,” CASC said. “No recovery tests were conducted during this mission; however, first-stage recovery tests are scheduled to be carried out at a later, opportune time.”
周一的发射并未包含任何一级助推器着陆尝试，但火箭携带了栅格舵和着陆支腿，这是未来回收实验的重要硬件组件。CACL 的母公司中国航天科技集团（CASC）在发射后发表声明，宣布长征十二号乙首飞“圆满成功”。CASC 表示：“此次发射为（中国）的大规模互联网星座组网任务增添了又一枚大运力商业火箭。本次任务未进行回收试验，但计划在未来适当时机开展一级回收试验。”
Satellites for one of these large-scale Internet constellations rode to space aboard the Long March 12B, which released a batch of Qianfan broadband spacecraft into low-Earth orbit. Qianfan is one of China’s two leading mega-constellations, each seeking to replicate for China what SpaceX’s Starlink does in the United States.
长征十二号乙此次搭载了这些大规模互联网星座中的卫星，将一批“千帆”宽带卫星送入了近地轨道。“千帆”是中国两大领先的巨型星座之一，旨在为中国复制 SpaceX 在美国所做的“星链”计划。
Who’s involved?
谁参与其中？
The Long March rocket family dates back to 1970, when China launched its first satellite into orbit using the Long March 1 vehicle derived from Chinese ballistic missiles. Many iterations have followed. The Long March 2, 3, and 4 rockets were China’s workhorses in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. These rockets remain operational but are being replaced by newer models, such as the Long March 5, 6, 7, and 8, which can launch everything from small satellites to massive modules for China’s space station.
长征系列火箭的历史可以追溯到 1970 年，当时中国使用源自弹道导弹的长征一号运载火箭将首颗卫星送入轨道。此后，该系列经历了多次迭代。长征二号、三号和四号火箭是 20 世纪 80 年代、90 年代和 21 世纪初中国航天的主力。这些火箭目前仍在服役，但正逐渐被长征五号、六号、七号和八号等新型号取代，这些新型号能够发射从小型卫星到中国空间站大型舱段等各种载荷。
Somewhat confusingly, the Long March 12 family now includes three dissimilar designs. The original Long March 12, with four kerosene-fueled main engines, launched for the first time in 2024, sporting a conventional, expendable design. The partially reusable Long March 12A launched in December, replacing the Long March 12’s kerosene-fueled engines with a methane-fueled propulsion system outsourced to a private engine builder. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) managed the development of the Long March 12 and 12A.
令人困惑的是，长征十二号系列目前包含三种不同的设计。最初的长征十二号采用四台煤油发动机，于 2024 年首次发射，采用传统的消耗型设计。去年 12 月发射的部分可回收长征十二号甲，将长征十二号的煤油发动机更换为外包给民营发动机制造商的甲烷动力系统。上海航天技术研究院（SAST）负责了长征十二号和十二号甲的开发工作。