The Long March 5 Y3 is China's strongest rocket. XINHUA
China's biggest and most powerful carrier (运载) rocket roared (轰鸣) into space on Dec 27, 2019. The Long March 5 kicked off its mission (任务) at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan.
The 57-meter-tall rocket, known as the Long March 5 Y3, is the tallest, strongest and most technologically sophisticated (技术复杂的) rocket in China. Since it is much bigger than China's other Long March rockets, people call it "Fat 5". The rocket is able to carry spacecraft (航天器) weighing up to 25 tons – roughly the weight of 16 midsize cars – into low-Earth orbit (近地轨道), China Daily reported. This payload capacity (有效载荷) is about 2.5 times greater than that of any other Chinese rocket.
During the December launch, the Long March 5 successfully sent the Shijian 20 experimental satellite into orbit. At more than 8 tons, it is the heaviest and most advanced communications (通信) satellite built by China.
The launch also tested key technologies that will be used to take the Chang'e 5 probe (探测器) to the moon, according to the China National Space Administration.
The success of the Long March 5 launch was hard-earned. The rocket's first launch was carried out in November 2016 at the Wenchang center. A second mission took place in July 2017 at the same site, but failed to send a satellite into orbit. According to project leaders, in the two years since that failure, the rocket's research team held more than 600 seminars (研讨会) and carried out at least 1,000 experiments and tests to improve the rocket.
"Compared with the Long March 5 Y2 that was used in the failed second mission, the new one has about 200 technical improvements, including changes to the engine design," Li Dong, the rocket's chief designer (总设计师), said to China Daily.
The future missions of the Long March 5 will include a trip to Mars, taking back moon samples (样本), and placing parts of a manned (载人的) space station into orbit.
