Commentators view of the launch.
Planned sequence of events until S/C separation at T0+37min 21s.
Looks like a successful launch!
They seem happy, if this was post sep:
They seem happy, if this was post sep:
They are apparently the propulsion team for the YF-77 LH2 engine for the Long March 5 first stage - the very ones really badly needing a good flight this time!
Congratulations to China for the successful launch! Now we can look forward to CZ-5 launching Chang'e 5, Huoxing 1, the next generation crewed spacecraft and China's modular space station.
Official press release gives the separation orbit as 192 x 68000 km.
Shijian 20 - that's really a pretty big comsat bird.
I noticed you can see some of the fire coming out of the second stage engines. Why is that? From what I know about those engines, I can't think of anything that could be.
Some reports on the YF-77 problems as written in the linked article:- After the July 2017 failure the initial investigations were completed in October 2017, followed by 14 engine tests up to April 2018 when the original investigations were concluded.
- The Chinese did try to look for the culprit YF-77 engine with their deep-sea submersible
Jiaolong in October 2017, to take a look at the suspected cracked LOX turbopump, but without success. (A similar dive by the Japanese following the November 1999 H-II rocket failure did found the culprit engine & ultimately assisted in the investigations)
- The RTF flight program was halted twice - after an engine test failure in November 2018 and then findings of microscopic cracks in engines in April 2019. In both cases the rocket was close to assembly complete and installed engines had to be removed.
- Final clearance of the YF-77 engines didn't came until late July 2019. Engines for this flight were re-installed just before shipping in September-October 2019.
Mission brochure:
(translations of those numbers coming soon...)