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China develops next-gen rocket to expedite space

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Press Trust of India Beijing
Last Updated : Jan 20 2013 | 9:47 PM IST

The rockets 120 tonne liquid oxygen kerosene engine had passed initial tests and it would undergo field tests by the year end, Liang Xiaohong, vice-president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology said.     

Significant progress has been made on the rocket engine and the building of a production plant.     

Long March V would meet the requirement of large-payload Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GEO) missions for the next two or three decades, Li Hong, president of the launch vehicle academy, said.     

With four boosters, the 59.5-meter-high environmentally friendly rocket's launching weight would reach 643 tonnes.     

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A workhorse of China's space programme, the Long March rockets have carried out 107 missions since 1970 when the first rocket of the Long March family was launched. Recently, a Long March-3B rocket injected a new telecommunications satellite, Zhongxing-9, into space.     

China with an ambitious space programme launched its first lunar orbiter in October last year.

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