chinese rocket success

[JimmyH155]

What a beautiful blast off that was:D And such a great looking rocket with those 4 boosters at the back :thumbsup:
The video showed the rocket zooming skywards, but NOT A BIT OF SMOKE:):) What fuel was it burning??? Looks like a natural gas flame ..... Not like those dreadfully smokey shuttle take offs . Any ideas?? HEY, it has docked now..
JIMMY

[TrevorW]

Very nice and first Chinese woman in space,

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Chinese-spacecraft-docks-with-orbiting-module-3640110.php#photo-3077803

[gary]

Hi Jimmy,

According to Wikipedia, all three stages of the Long March 2F rocket, which was the
model used on this launch, burn Dinitrogen tetroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_tetroxide) (N204) and Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDMH)(UDMH).

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_2F

[ZeroID]

So many letters in there it sounds like they are burning Alphabet Soup. :P

[Poita]

I love that they are referred to as 'strap on boosters'. Doesn't inspire confidence, but I love the look of the thing.

[Omaroo]

Yes, congratulations to the Chinese.

I have to say that the Long March rockets look like tin cans to me. LOL... The tapered boosters of the Russian's decades-old R7 looks like poetry in motion in comparison.

[tlgerdes]

Now that they have the prototype build and bugs ironed out, I hear they are building 16 factories to mass produce them and drive the costs down so everyone can afford to have one. They want to get the cost per launch vehicle down to $100,000.:lol:

[TrevorW]

"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness"

Who knows whats possible I bet you they'd like to get all their ore etc for free and where else but in space:question:

[Steffen]

The Chinese have 1000 years of experience with fireworks, I knew they would succeed :)

[TrevorW]

fuels and SI

Current use

Here are some common liquid fuel combinations in use today:


LOX and kerosene (RP-1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP-1)). Used for the lower stages of the Soyuz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz) boosters, and the first stage of the U.S. Saturn V (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V), Atlas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_%28rocket_family%29), and Falcon 9 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9) boosters. Very similar to Robert Goddard's first rocket.



LOX and liquid hydrogen, used in the stages of the Space Shuttle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle), Ariane 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5), Delta IV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV) and Centaur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_%28rocket_stage%29).



Nitrogen tetroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinitrogen_tetroxide) (N2O4) and UDMH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsymmetrical_dimethylhydrazine) or MMH. Used in three first stages of the Russian Proton booster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_%28rocket%29), most Chinese boosters, a number of military, orbital and deep space rockets, as this fuel combination is hypergolic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic) and storable for long periods at reasonable temperatures and pressures.



hydrazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine)(N2H4) and Aerozine-50 are also used in deep space missions because they are storable and hypergolic, and can be used as a monopropellant with a catalyst.



Typical performances of common propellants Propellant mix Vacuum Isp (seconds) Effective exhaust velocity (m/s) liquid oxygen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_oxygen)/
liquid hydrogen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_hydrogen) 455 4462 liquid oxygen/
kerosene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene) (RP-1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RP-1)) 358 3510 nitrogen tetroxide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_tetroxide)/
hydrazine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine) 344 3369

[mithrandir]

That's not smoke. It is steam from the water spray used in the noise suppression system boiling.