On February 27, the Long March 8 yao-2 carrier rocket was ignited and lifted off at China's Wenchang space launch site. Photo by Liu shuaiye At 11:06 a.m. on February 27, the flight test of Long March 8 yao-2 carrier rocket was successfully carried out at China's Wenchang space launch site. The rocket flight was normal and the test was a complete success. The mission carried a total of 22 satellites, setting a record for China's multi satellite mission with one arrow. According to experts, one rocket with multiple satellites refers to the technology that a carrier rocket sends multiple satellites into a predetermined orbit at the same time or successively. Compared with the traditional single satellite launch, one rocket with multiple satellites can make full use of the rocket carrying capacity, improve the launch efficiency and reduce the launch cost. It is difficult to launch multiple satellites with one arrow. At present, only a few countries in the world master it. In 2015, China's Long March 6 carrier rocket successfully launched 20 satellites into space in its first flight mission. The "22 stars with one arrow" set a new record. Long March 8 is a medium-sized launch vehicle independently developed by China. The launch of the Long March 8 carrier rocket is helpless. The rocket adopts non-toxic and pollution-free propellant. The whole rocket is about 48 meters long, the diameter of the first stage of the core is 3.35 meters, the diameter of the second stage of the core is 3.0 meters, the take-off weight is about 198 tons, and the take-off thrust is about 240 tons. It can realize the carrying capacity of 3 tons of solar synchronous orbit. Chen Xiaofei, the overall deputy chief designer of the Long March 8 carrier rocket of the first Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group, introduced that compared with the Long March 8 remote 1 rocket, the biggest difference in the shape of the remote 2 rocket is to cancel the two boosters and change from the two-stage and half configuration to the two-stage series configuration. It is reported that the launch carried 22 commercial satellites, including Hainan-1 01 and 02, dayun-17, wenchang-1 01 and 02 and taijing-3 01. They are mainly used for earth observation, Leo IOT communication and space science experiments. They can provide resource investigation, synthetic aperture radar data support, IOT decentralized terminal data acquisition On orbit scientific test and technical verification, ship information collection and processing and other services. How to launch 22 satellites with one arrow? Experts said that to safely and smoothly deliver so many satellites to the destination at one time, we must first solve the layout problem of "passengers" in the fairing. The researchers fully sorted out the structural form and mission requirements of the satellite, and innovatively designed a three-layer multi satellite distributor, which can arrange comfortable "seats" for each satellite in the limited fairing space. In addition, the satellite will leave the arrow body after it reaches the sky. In this process, the motion deviation caused by different unlocking methods and energy separation of the satellite should be considered. According to the satellite layout, the development team carried out multi round simulation calculation on all arrow bodies and satellite deviations, and designed 12 separation actions to ensure that 22 satellites "get off" at ease. Duan Baocheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the Long March 8 carrier rocket of the first Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group, said: "in the separation of stars and arrows, the Long March 8 rocket is like a 'ballet', and 22 stars are released like 'Heavenly women scattered flowers'." It is worth mentioning that the fairing height of the rocket is shortened from 8m to 5.4m, which reduces the load on the key parts of the whole rocket, which is conducive to improving the launch probability of the mission, so as to further improve the mission adaptability of the rocket. The Long March 8 yao-2 carrier rocket is also a "shared rocket", which carries and launches 22 satellites from 7 research and development units respectively. Xiao Yun, commander-in-chief of the Long March 8 carrier rocket of the first Academy of Aerospace Science and technology group, introduced: "in short, it is the 'carpooling' scheme, which provides users with affordable launch services, and the threshold is greatly reduced." The successful launch of Long March 8 yao-2 carrier rocket is also the first commercial space launch at Wenchang space launch site of Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The launch has greatly reduced the launch cost, and the demonstration effect of commercial application is remarkable. (Xinhua News Agency)