China on Thursday Nov. 3rd , 2016 successfully blasted off its new generation heavy-lifting launch vehicle Long March-5 from Wenchang Space Launch Center  in Hainan province.

The Long March-5 is a heavy-lifting launch vehicle using environment friendly liquid propellant, i.e. liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene, that can carry up to 25 tons to LEO or 14 tons to GTO. It is the biggest of Long March launch vehicles. The payload of this flight is SJ-17 Satellite combined with a YZ-2 upper stage, designed to inject satellites directly into GEO.

The Long March-5 will be used to launch satellites, low and medium earth orbit spacecrafts, large space stations and deep-space probes. In the next few years, the Chang'e-5 lunar probe and modules of China's space station will also be launched by it.

This flight is the Long March-5 maiden flight and the 238th of China's Long March launch vehicle family. The Long March-5 launch vehicle is developed by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), subordinated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

 

Date:2016-11-4