103 times! A new record is born!

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 20 (Reporter Hu Zhe) The reporter learned from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation that on August 20, the Long March 2D carrier rocket successfully launched the Remote Sensing Satellite No. 35 Group 04 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This marks the 103rd consecutive successful launch of China's Long March series of carrier rockets.

The rocket and satellite used in this launch mission were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. From the successful launch of the 17th recoverable satellite by the Long March 2D carrier rocket on October 20, 1996, to the successful launch of the Ocean 2 satellite by the Long March 4B carrier rocket on August 6, 2011, the Long March series of carrier rockets have been successfully launched for 102 consecutive times over a period of 15 years. However, the high-risk nature of the aerospace industry means that risks and challenges always exist, and the subsequent launch failures have sounded the alarm for aerospace personnel. To this end, the aerospace industry has carefully carried out comprehensive quality review and re-examination, learned from past experience, and made every effort to firmly maintain the bottom line and red line of production quality.

Through unremitting efforts, the Long March series of launch vehicles have set a new record of 103 consecutive victories since May 5, 2020, and it took only 2 years and 3 months to complete this record. During this period, the Long March series of launch vehicles have safely sent more than 200 spacecraft into space, including the Tianhe core module and Wentian laboratory module of the Chinese space station, the Chang'e-5 lunar probe, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, the Shenzhou manned spacecraft, the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, and the Beidou-3 navigation satellite.

"The Long March series of launch vehicles can still maintain a high success rate under a high-density launch situation. This is a reflection of the fact that China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has solidly promoted the implementation of various measures and achieved remarkable results in the implementation of 'high quality, high efficiency and high benefit' development," said Wu Yansheng, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

At present, the Long March series of launch vehicles in service can not only launch satellites, space stations, manned and cargo spacecraft into different high, medium and low Earth orbits, but also have the ability to launch unmanned deep space probes.

It is reported that my country is also developing a new generation of manned carrier rockets and heavy-lift carrier rockets. In the future, these rockets will undertake missions such as manned lunar landing, Mars exploration, Jupiter exploration and asteroid exploration, supporting the Chinese people's pace of space exploration to go more steadily and further.

Long Lehao, a launch vehicle technology expert at the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that with the continuous service, maturity and growth of the new generation of Long March rocket "family", the old and new rockets will continue to develop in the direction of high quality, high reliability and continuous success, achieve comprehensive alternation, and continue to efficiently and reliably send various spacecraft safely into the predetermined orbit.

Original title: "The number of consecutive successful launches of the Long March series of carrier rockets has reached a new high"