China's Largest Thrust Solid Engine Hot Firing Test Succeeded

On March 5, a 200 t-thrust advanced solid engine completed its ground hot firing test with success. The engine was developed by the Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology (AASPT), aiming at future commercial space launch service market. It is a solid fuel rocket engine with the maximum capacity and the largest thrust among the existing Chinese solid fuel engines. The monolithic solid fuel rocket motor adopts a high performance filament-wound composite shell and uses multiple new technologies. The comprehensive performance has reached a world advanced level which enables more powerful propulsion with higher price-quality ratio for China's new generation solid launch vehicles.

Early in 2009, AASPT successfully developed a monolithic motor with 120 tons of thrust, the largest thrust then,which promoted the LM-11 project development, the first solid launch vehicle in the Long March family.

The engine can be applied in the future modified LM-11. Compared with LM-11, the diameter of the first-stage engine of the modified version will be increased to 2.65 m from 2 m, the thrust to 200 tons from 120 tons, and fuel to 71 tons from 35 tons. The shell of the engine will use a high performance filament-wound composite instead of steel.It is expected that the launch capacity of the modified LM-11 to a 700 km SSO will be 1.5 tons from 420 kg.

In addition, due to integration the advantages of the former engines and the experiences gained in the development of advanced engines in recent years, the cost of the new engine is better controlled, which enables it to have higher price-quality ratio in the commercial space environment. (RONG Yuanzhao,CHEN Xu/AASPT)