News Excerpt:
The first stage of the Tianlong-3 ignited normally during a hot test but later detached from the bench due to a structural failure and landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China.
Tianlong-3 and Space Pioneer
- The two-stage Tianlong-3 (the name is Mandarin for “Sky Dragon”) is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of a small group of private-sector rocket makers.
- Space Pioneer launched a kerosene-oxygen rocket, the Tianlong-2, becoming the first private Chinese firm to send a liquid-propellant rocket into space.
Rocket Technology
- A hot test is one in which fuel is flowed into the rocket motor being tested and it is allowed to fire in conditions mimicking those during lift-off.
- A rocket can consist of several stages, with the first, or lowest, stage igniting and propelling the rocket upwards upon its launch.
- When the fuel is exhausted, the first stage falls off, and the second stage ignites, keeping the rocket in propulsion. Some rockets have third stages.
- India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has four stages.
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PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)
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