China Begins Prototype Development for New Manned-Carrier Three-Stage Engine Rocket

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced on Thursday that the first long-distance and multiple ignition tests of the three-stage engine of China’s new manned-carrier rocket were successfully completed, meaning that the engine can now move into the initial prototype development stage.

CASC pointed out that this engine is the first upper-stage hydrogen-oxygen engine with low-pressure torch ignition in China. The tests examined the key technologies such as the state of the engine and components, working reliability of the ignition system, and the real-time fault diagnosis system.

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All the participants completed the transformation of the test system in only three days, so too with test preparation, and finally completed successfully the three ignition tests.

The steps and stages of rocket or spacecraft engineering development are roughly as follows: planning, initial prototype, test prototype and application launch. The planning stage can be subdivided into demonstration, research and development. After that, an initial prototype is developed for testing purposes.

The two stages in the middle are the steps that must be finished in the development of aerospace projects such as a carrier rocket. The completion of these two stages requires researchers to complete the flight test verification of the prototype according to the flight test plan and flight test outline. They need to put forward the test result analysis report, and make a conclusion whether the prototype meets the requirements of the development task book.