Chapter 224 Failure II

Chapter 224 Failure-II

The H80, which is more suitable for the third-stage engine than the H50, also ushered in its first actual test at this time.

The numerical suffix of H80 is ground thrust, and the vacuum thrust can reach 112 tons, which is almost equivalent to the second-stage rocket engine J-IIB of Saturn V.

On August 14, two days after the launch of Long March 10, a Xinyuan 3 was erected at the No. 2 station of Xinyuan Space Launch Site.

This Xinyuan 3 only carries the second stage, and this second stage is what Guo Shen said is a recyclable second stage.

According to Guo Shen's previous idea, it squeezed an H80 engine improved from H50 in the middle of four H240s.

The appearance of this second-stage rocket is also very different. Due to the ablation of the atmosphere, the overall outer surface of the rocket has turned black. It is a thermal insulation layer simplified from the thermal insulation tile of the H2 space shuttle.

Since the object of protection has changed from humans to fuel tanks, the weight and cost of the thermal insulation layer have been reduced a lot, but it can still meet the requirements of resisting 100 times of atmospheric ablation.

At the same time, because of the increase in weight, in order not to reduce the carrying capacity, the body of the second-stage rocket is slightly lengthened by 5 meters to accommodate more fuel. Careful people can also find that there are several bulges on its lower part.

The recovery method of the second-stage rocket may be different from what most people think. It is neither vertical landing gear recovery nor grid rudder recovery, but parachute.

Because the 11-meter diameter is too large, the body is too wide and there is only one H80 in the center swinging back and forth, the test of attitude control is ridiculously high. It is feasible in theory, but very troublesome in practice, so it is not possible to land vertically on the ground.

If multiple engines are to be started and recovered, the layout must be changed. If three H80s are used to achieve this goal, then the second-stage engines will have to change from 4 H240s to 13 H80s.

Not to mention the dead weight problem of too many engines, the super-large nozzle required for the vacuum version alone cannot be squeezed in, so it is really impossible.

Now the recovery method designed by Guo Shen is:

The second stage rocket separates, and then the original top becomes a blunt and smooth surface, with the head tilted downward to resist atmospheric ablation and protect the engine. After entering the atmosphere, the parachute on the top pops off.

The purpose of this parachute is not to slow down, but to adjust the posture by gradually releasing three parachutes that become larger in sequence, changing the rocket with the head down to the engine facing down. After roughly adjusting, it is abandoned.

Then the four huge nozzles of H240 are opened outward to the maximum, leaving enough space for the H80 rocket engine to start swinging and slowing down, until it is almost hovering at 5 to 10 meters above the sea level.

At this time, H80 suddenly shuts down, and several small solid pulse rockets buried below are ignited, causing the rocket body to lie horizontally and fall down.

At the same time, several bulges at the tail of the second stage rocket cracked, and a huge airbag popped out. When the rocket falls into the water, it will naturally make the tail engine face up, and the rocket body face down and the engine face up to float on the water.

At this time, the tugboat hovering nearby rushed over, put on the iron chain and towed the rocket all the way back to the port for recycling and reuse.

The rocket body is not afraid of being soaked in salt water, not to mention that there is a protective layer that can resist atmospheric ablation. It is okay for the engine to get a little bit of water, just wash it and it can be used.

The biggest advantage of this recovery system is that it greatly reduces the mass of the landing part, because it is directly poured into the water, the impact on the rocket is very small, and the second-stage rocket is not long, so the strength of the rocket body is fine.

Just this one time can save at least more than 100 million, and the launch cost of Xinyuan 3 is on par with Xinyuan 2A, which is comfortable~

With such expectations, Xinyuan 3 flew into the sky with a black recyclable second-stage rocket.

350 seconds later, the first-stage rocket of Xinyuan 3 separated and entered the recovery program, and the four H240s of the second-stage rocket worked for a while, and after crossing the atmosphere, they turned around and started to recover.

From the outside of the atmosphere to the inner circle of the ionosphere, the engine cannot be started for braking, nor can it be adjusted aerodynamically. During this period, it is simply hard burning.

When Guo Shen looked up, he could see a bright meteor in the sky. That was the second stage of Xinyuan-2, which was rubbing against the atmosphere at more than 30 times the speed of sound.

Then there were a few minutes of loss of contact, and then the second stage rocket crossed the ionosphere and established contact with the ground.

For this launch mission, Lin Ju also actively learned from Lao Ma. Like before, there was an official live broadcast for each non-confidential mission. This launch said that the second stage would be recovered, and there were also many people watching.

At this time, the live broadcast screen was only the camera on the ground. At this time, there was only one meteor in the sky, and no images could be sent back. There was only radio contact.

When it entered the predetermined height, the head of the rocket, which was almost head-down, bounced off the first parachute. The area of ​​this parachute was very small and very fragile. It was disconnected and flew away after only one second of being deployed by the high-speed airflow.

But the attitude of the rocket had been adjusted a little bit, and the second parachute was ejected immediately. This parachute worked for more than 2 seconds and was torn to pieces.

After that, the third parachute was also the last one to be ejected. Although the rocket was still falling at a high speed, it took 5 seconds to almost straighten its posture under the effect of this parachute.

As the third parachute was also abandoned, the H80 engine officially began to ignite intermittently and constantly adjust its posture.

The live broadcast still could not see the specific situation in the sky at this time, only the animation simulated posture demonstration.

As the altitude gradually dropped until 5,000 meters, the slightly blurred second-stage rocket could finally be seen in the picture after being magnified.

Although its attitude was completely corrected at this time, its descent rate was extremely high, and it was almost twice as fast as the recovery rocket in the past.

This was because it had less fuel to reduce weight. After all, it was recovered in the sea, so it was okay to have a higher speed.

At an altitude of 1,000 meters, H80 finally began to work continuously. This engine accelerated by the funds of the System Research Institute was extremely reliable. It was directly put into practical use after only 10 cumulative 1,800-second tests.

After multiple ignitions and long working hours, YF77 fainted in the toilet.

As the altitude dropped a little bit, Guo Shen suddenly found something wrong.

Why is there white smoke?

Because the whole body is black, when the white gas escapes from the bottom and side of the rocket, it is particularly conspicuous, and it is difficult not to notice it.

Netizens in the live broadcast room didn't know what happened yet, but the launch center had already discovered an abnormality:

"The pressure of the oxidizer tank dropped suddenly, and cracks in the rocket body are suspected!"

"01, 04 pressure sensors are abnormal, and the fuel is rapidly decreasing!"

"The oxidizer is exhausted, and the engine is stopped!"

Under the eyes of the public, the second-stage rocket, which had descended to an altitude of 200 meters, finally stopped emitting white mist. The H80 at the bottom was directly shut down due to insufficient fuel, and then the rocket fell straight down.

The rocket was monitored to begin to fall sideways, and according to the pre-instructions, the four airbags at the bottom were quickly ejected, and the four huge white airbags wrapped the entire tail.

The second-stage rocket was head-down at an angle of 80 degrees to the vertical plane, but basically entered the water sideways, splashing huge water on the sea, first bounced up for a while under the reaction force, and then finally floated on the sea because the airbags were head-down.