The launch timeline and stage parameters for this flight was leaked relatively recently. I may translate it later when I have time.
Planned orbit was reported to be a 270 x 35991 km x 19.56° standard GTO.
Tweets by our inimitable Cosmic/GalacticPenguin explaining the cause for the maiden flight's failure:
So after the successful LM-7A RTF the official results of this investigation was revealed, confirming the loss of pressurization theory...but that happened on 1 of the 4 boosters' engine inlet & not the 2nd stage as reported above. This happened at T+168s, 5 seconds before MECO.
From the words of CALT's LM-7 program vice-chief: "We clearly saw on the rocket cameras that the rocket disintegrated during 1st stage separation." An early shutdown on 1 of the boosters would easily knock off the LV's attitude as the (combined) 1st stage/boosters separate.
This would explain the explosion a few seconds after MECO as seen from the ground in a video taken last year. It looks like "manufacturing defect" wasn't mentioned in the reports so the design fault theory mentioned above seems to be correct.
This article essentially stated that the team found that there was cavitation at one of the booster's LOX tank outlet: https://mbd.baidu.com/newspage/data/landingsuper?context={"nid"%3A"news_10130346967978642169"}
The launch timeline and stage parameters for this flight was leaked relatively recently. I may translate it later when I have time.
Planned orbit was reported to be a 270 x 35991 km x 19.56° standard GTO.
Booster cutoff at 173 seconds, followed by core stage shutdown at 177 seconds? Guessing.
- Ed Kyle