What big moves will China’s aerospace industry make in 2022?

Run towards the stars and the sea, and your steps will never stop.

At the "China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities Blue Book (2021)" conference held recently by China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd., the latest achievements of China's aerospace industry in 2021 were displayed, and China's aerospace industry in 2022 was disclosed. The "to-do list" of China is full of world-renowned achievements and new plans that inspire people to move forward.

"Zhurong" detects fire, "Xihe" chases the sun, and "Tianhe" travels among the stars... In 2021, China Aerospace wrote "Chinese romance" in space, with more than 50 launches for the first time in the year. The Long March launch vehicle achieved a new milestone of 400 launches. Major breakthroughs have been made in the fields of manned spaceflight, lunar and deep space exploration, applied satellites, scientific and technological experiments, etc. At the same time, a relatively complete satellite application system has been built, producing significant social and economic benefits.

Exploring the vast universe, developing the aerospace industry, and building a powerful aerospace nation are our unremitting pursuit of the aerospace dream. In 2022, China's space relay will enter the "super mode". The manned space project will carry out 6 launch missions throughout the year, the space station with year-round care will be fully completed, and the Long March 6A carrier rocket will make its first flight... The pace of exploring space will be further advanced. Bigger and farther, marking a new era of China's aerospace development.

Space launch activities have reached a new record high, and many of my country's major aerospace projects are progressing smoothly

In 2021, China's space launch activities will continue to set new records. It carried out 55 launch missions throughout the year, ranking first in the world in the number of launches; it launched 115 spacecraft, and the total mass of launched spacecraft reached a new high, reaching 191.19 tons, a year-on-year increase of 85.5%. Among them, the Long March series launch vehicles have completed 48 launch missions, all of which were successful, ranking first among the world's aerospace companies in the number of launches.

During the year, the Long March series of launch vehicles have achieved 75 consecutive successful launches. They have the ability to launch low, medium and high orbits and different types of payloads. Their carrying capacity, reliability and success rate are among the best in the world.

The greater the thrust of the launch vehicle, the greater the stage for space exploration. The successful launch of the Long March 7A carrier rocket has filled the gap in China's high-orbit carrying capacity of 5.5 tons to 7 tons, and has the ability to launch zero-inclination orbit satellites, lunar exploration, fire detection and asteroid detection missions.

In addition, the key core technologies of heavy-duty launch vehicle engines have also achieved comprehensive breakthroughs: the 500-ton liquid oxygen kerosene rocket engine was successfully tested in full working conditions and semi-system, and the first engineering prototype of the 220-ton after-burning cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine The development was successful, and the first thrust chamber squeeze test of the upper-level 25-ton expansion cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine was successfully completed... The comprehensive performance indicators of these various types of engines under development have reached the world's advanced level and can meet the power needs of major aerospace missions in the future.

Going up to heaven and down to earth, everyone shows their magical powers. The booster and fairing parachute landing technology has been successfully verified, overcoming the problem of structural disintegration of the fairing during re-entry into the atmosphere. For the first time, China's launch vehicle fairing parachute landing has been achieved, laying a solid foundation for subsequent accurate control of the fairing landing zone. , greatly improving the safety of the landing area.

In terms of spacecraft development activities, the number of spacecraft developed and launched throughout the year ranked second in the world. Major breakthroughs have been made in the fields of manned spaceflight, lunar and deep space exploration, applied satellites, scientific and technological experiments, etc.

——The key technology verification phase of the space station is basically completed. Five launch missions during the year were completely successful. Among them, the Tianhe core module was successfully launched at the end of April last year, and the orbit assembly and construction of the space station was in full swing. The first batch of astronauts on the space station, Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo, stayed in orbit for three months and returned safely. Currently, the second batch of astronaut crew members Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu are stationed for a six-month long-term stay.

——The Mars exploration mission achieves "orbiting, orbiting and patrolling" in one go. China's first Mars exploration mission was a complete success.

——The mobile communication satellite Tiantong-1 realizes Samsung networking. The Tiantong-1 03 satellite was successfully launched and networked with the Tiantong-1 01 and 02 satellites in orbit to build China's first satellite mobile communication system and achieve coverage in the Asia-Pacific region.

——The Tianlian-105 satellite was successfully launched. The satellite is operating in a global network with the Skylink satellites in orbit, marking the successful conclusion of the first generation of data relay series satellites. The Skylink satellite system has made China the second country in the world to have a relay satellite system with global coverage, providing space-based measurement and control and data relay services for manned space systems, medium and low orbit spacecraft, launch vehicles, etc.

——The Fengyun-3E star and the Fengyun-4B star were successfully launched. The launch and operation of the Fengyun-3E satellite has filled the gap in global atmospheric detection information during the morning and dusk periods, achieved 100% coverage of global observation data, and effectively improved the accuracy and timeliness of global numerical weather forecasting. The successfully launched Fengyun-4B satellite has a visible light resolution of 250 meters, ranking first among geostationary orbiting meteorological satellites in the world. It is the first operational satellite of a new generation of geostationary orbiting meteorological satellites.

——The Ocean-2 D star was successfully launched. The satellite is operating in orbit with the Haiyang-2 B and C satellites, marking the completion of China's marine dynamic environment satellite constellation, forming an all-weather, all-day, high-frequency marine dynamic environment monitoring system.

——The first solar exploration satellite Xihe was successfully launched.

The application of Xihe achieved the world's first space exploration of solar Hα band spectral imaging, filled the gap in high-quality observation data in the solar explosion source area, and improved human research capabilities in the field of solar physics. In addition, Xihe applied maglev technology in orbit for the first time and carried out the first on-orbit flight test of an ultra-high pointing accuracy and ultra-high stability platform.

——The Guangmu Earth Science Satellite was successfully launched. The satellite has become the country's first scientific satellite dedicated to serving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It can carry out precise detection of energy consumption, human settlement patterns, and offshore coastal environments in areas with strong human activities. It is an important tool to characterize the sustainable interaction between humans and nature. Provide data support on development indicators.

In addition, the number of China's commercial satellite development institutions will continue to grow in 2021, and commercial aerospace has basically formed a major industrial chain layout. Companies such as Aerospace Dongfanghong, Shenzhen Dongfanghong, Chinese Academy of Sciences Micro Satellite, Changguang Satellite, Tianyi Research Institute, AES Aerospace, Spacetime Daoyu and other companies have independently developed and launched 36 commercial satellites. Their application fields have continued to expand and have covered Communications, remote sensing, technology experiments, space science and other aspects.

Build a relatively complete satellite application system, so that aerospace technology can better serve society and people's livelihood, and serve the development and construction of the national economy

In terms of communication and broadcasting services: Vimicrotel 9B satellite is targeted at High-power synthesis dedicated transponders are designed for the transmission of 4K, 8K high-definition and ultra-high-definition video programs, providing high-quality live broadcast, rebroadcast and transmission services for large-scale activities or sports events such as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. At the same time, China Communications Satellite also provides safe, efficient, cross-regional communication connection services for users at home and abroad. The technology related to China's first low-orbit broadband satellite and 5G private network integration test can be used in polar scientific research, deep sea, ocean survey and detection and other scenarios to provide broadband wireless communication guarantee.

In terms of land and resources services: China's remote sensing satellite technology deeply serves the land and resources management business, and its application scope, scale, and depth continue to expand, achieving quarterly and sub-meter resolution of China's land and land with 2-meter resolution. It has about 90% effective annual coverage and has 1:10,000 aerospace three-dimensional surveying and hyperspectral detection capabilities. It has become an important technical support and routine information guarantee for surveying and mapping geographic information, spatial planning, geological exploration, supervision and law enforcement, etc. The sharing and application of satellite data has reached a large scale. 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have established provincial satellite application technology centers for natural resources.

In terms of marine resource services: China has developed a series of ocean water color, ocean power, and ocean monitoring satellites, and the operational operation capabilities of ocean observation satellite networks have basically been formed. The applications of marine remote sensing data are constantly enriched, playing an irreplaceable role in many fields such as marine disaster prevention and reduction, early warning and forecasting, environmental monitoring and protection, fishery and fishing, and achieving significant economic benefits.

In terms of meteorological observation services: After more than 50 years of development, China’s meteorological satellites have successfully launched 19 Fengyun meteorological satellites. Currently, there are 8 meteorological satellites working in orbit, forming two serialized and operational comprehensive observation constellations, polar orbit and stationary, with the ability to conduct refined and comprehensive detection of the atmosphere and the earth's multi-sphere system.

In terms of transportation services: In the field of road transportation, the Beidou system helps improve smart transportation. More than 7 million road operating vehicles are equipped with the Beidou system. China has built the world's largest dynamic supervision system for operating vehicles. In the field of water transportation, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Tianjin, Rizhao and other places comprehensively use Beidou system, 5G communication and other technical means to build automated terminals, achieve centimeter-level precision operations, and promote the intelligent transformation of ports. In the field of civil aviation, China's fleet is connected to high-speed Internet, laying the foundation for promoting the large-scale application of civil aviation passenger aircraft networking. In terms of intelligent transportation, the application of "Beidou + 5G +" technology has enabled breakthroughs in autonomous driving technology. Beijing Winter Olympics Shougang Park's smart car-linked autonomous driving comprehensively uses Beidou, 5G, AI and other technologies to meet the continuous high-precision positioning requirements of vehicles at the 0.1-meter level, and realize autonomous driving and automatic parking of automated minibuses in Shougang Park. It has also implemented demonstration operations in 10 major business scenarios, including unmanned ferry services, unmanned retail, and unmanned distribution.

In terms of emergency management services: China Aerospace plays an important role in natural disasters and emergencies. In 2021, China Land Observation Satellite arranged 3,677 remote sensing satellite emergency imaging for 141 natural disasters and major emergencies at home and abroad, and shared 38,571 scenes of emergency data. China has built the Beidou Comprehensive Disaster Reduction and Relief Application System to achieve effective dynamic remote monitoring of national emergency rescue on one map. It is deployed on a three-level platform of "ministry, province, city (county)" and has been implemented on a large scale in more than 10 provinces across the country. , promoting more than 45,000 Beidou terminals.

In addition, China Aerospace has also achieved excellent results in ecological and environmental services, agricultural production services, education and training services, power industry services, and international cooperation.

In 2022, the major missions of the space station will be advanced in an orderly manner, the launch vehicles will create many "firsts", and China's aerospace will continue to write new glories

In 2022, China's aerospace launch and development The work continues to turn on the "super mode" and run at a high level. The model scientific research and production tasks throughout the year showed three major characteristics:

——The number of launches and flight tests continued to remain high. It is planned to arrange more than 50 space launch missions and launch more than 140 spacecraft.

——Major engineering tasks are very arduous and have huge impact. The construction of the space station is an important leading project in building a scientific and technological power and aerospace power. It is the top priority of the space mission throughout the year. The manned space program carried out 6 launch missions throughout the year, and fully built a space station with the Tianhe core module as the control center, the Wentian and Mengtian experimental modules as the main experimental platforms, and a year-round manned space station. It will realize the first combined flight of six spacecrafts, the first time astronauts will stay for 6 months, and the first time two crews of astronauts will be in orbit at the same time. The Long March 6A launch vehicle and multiple types of commercial launch vehicles will make their first flights.

In addition, a number of national civil space infrastructure scientific research satellites and operational satellites will be launched to meet the application needs of users in various fields such as natural resources, ecological environment, forestry and grassland, emergency disaster relief, meteorology, radio and television, etc. The annual launch plan also includes multiple commercial launch missions such as Beijing-3B satellite and Zhongzi satellite constellation 03 satellites.

——The research and development tasks continue to be high-intensity and the technical research is difficult. In 2022, we will focus on the development of multiple models represented by the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project, asteroid detectors, etc., and promote satellite applications to actively serve national strategic goals. Create an "aerospace + informatization +" industrial form, accelerate the construction of a high-orbit satellite Internet comprehensive information service system, build a satellite remote sensing comprehensive operation service system that integrates civil and commercial sectors, and extend Beidou applications to system integration and value-added services.

Faced with arduous research and development tasks and scientific and technological breakthroughs, Chinese astronauts will further promote the aerospace spirit, enhance historical confidence, bravely shoulder historical responsibilities, and open up a path of higher quality, higher efficiency, and higher benefit development. The new journey will promote the Chinese people to explore space steadily and further, and continue to write a new chapter.