Kaituozhe 2

The Kaituozhe 2 ( Chinese  開拓者 二號  /  开拓者 二号 , Pinyin Kāituòzhě Èrhào , KT-2 for short , Chinese for explorer 2 ) is a Chinese launcher .

history

When it was founded on May 26, 2000, Raumfahrt-Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH , a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), had ambitious plans to develop a total of four launch vehicles for commercial satellite launches. During the first launch of Kaituozhe 1 on September 15, 2002 from the Taiyuan Cosmodrome , the second stage of the rocket failed and the technology test satellite that served as a payload was lost. At the same time the Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH, because of the English name Space Solid Fuel Rocket Carrier Co. Ltd. often abbreviated SSRC , at an exhibition on the cosmodrome models of two other launch vehicles, the Kaituozhe 2 and the Kaituozhe 2A. The Kaituozhe 2 was then intended to carry payloads of 300 kg in a geostationary transfer orbit or a polar orbit . The Kaituozhe 2A, which had two solid propellant boosters 1 m in diameter, should be able to carry up to three satellites with a total weight of about 400 kg into polar orbits.

The founders of the SSRC originally hoped to be able to carry out up to ten starts per year after a certain start-up time. In reality, that was a long way off. Due to a lack of revenue - the Kaituozhe 1 had flown only once at the time - the company had a net worth of only 108.31 million yuan on June 30, 2003 with gross assets of 440.21 million yuan. The rest was debt. However, the figures on gross assets should be viewed with reservations. On January 10, 2001, one month after CASIC, which at that time was still known as "China Aerospace Machinery and Electronics Corporation," increased the company's share capital to 101,540,000 yuan, the SSRC reportedly handed over 200 million yuan in cash the Hunaner securities GmbH (湖南证券有限责任公司) and closed one with her Vermögensverwaltungs -Übereinkunft according to which the Hunaner Wertpapier GmbH invest the money for one year with 15% of the achieved rate of return should be.

In April 2001, Hunaner Wertpapier GmbH renamed itself "Taiyang Securities Co. Ltd." (泰阳 证券 有限 责任 公司), but ran into financial difficulties and was unable to repay the 200 million yuan. For 2004, Taiyang Securities reported a net loss of 1.1 billion yuan. Yin Xingliang (殷兴良, 1953-2010), the chairman of the board of the Raumfahrt-Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH, had been promoted to the general director of the CASIC in December 2003, he kept his post at the SSRC. However, he was removed from office on June 23, 2007 by order of the State Council of the People's Republic of China . His successor at the SSRC was Zhang Zhongfu (张忠福), and General Director of CASIC was Xu Dazhe .

On October 14, 2007, Xu Dazhe was from the XVII. Congress of the Communist Party of China in the Central Disciplinary Committee appointed the party, in fact, the top anti-corruption agency of China, and on 24 December 2007, the Space solid launchers handed GmbH on the High People's Court of Hunan Province in Changsha against the Taiyang Securities action for payment of 238,885 .700 yuan (the original 200 million plus interest) and 3,439,954 yuan from another transaction. Inconsistencies arose in the course of the process. The Higher People's Court came to the conclusion on March 25, 2008 that Chen Jun (陈军), the managing director of Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH, and Li Xuanming (李 选 明), the former CEO of Hunaner Wertpapier GmbH, were guilty of price manipulation in securities transactions .

The process was interrupted and the matter was handed over to the Hunan State Criminal Police Office (湖南省 公安厅). After extensive investigations, the result of which was communicated to the court in writing on February 10, 2012, the State Criminal Police Office came to the conclusion that the crime had been committed by a department of Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH and asked the court to refer the case to the Department for further clarification White-collar crime (经济 犯罪 侦查 总队) to pass. The detectives collected additional evidence, which they handed over to the Furong District Prosecutor's Office . The public prosecutor's office recognized on July 22, 2013 that Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH had actually manipulated the securities market, but had to state that the evidence was insufficient to initiate its own proceedings. However, less than a year later, on June 11, 2014, Chen Jun and Li Xuanming were found guilty of a criminal trial in the Changsha City Intermediate People's Court . Since the suspicion that they had not acted as individuals but on the orders of their superiors could not be completely dispelled, they received a lesser sentence.

Raumfahrt-Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH had its own office in the CASIC building complex in Beijing ; it was not a letterbox company in the literal sense. However, the company did not have its own development laboratories or production facilities; these were all at the four subsidiaries of the group that formed the SSRC consortium. Finally, the China Space Sanjiang Group Corporation , which had carried out the final assembly of military missiles on the former 066 base in Hubei since the 1980s, took over the further development and construction of the Kaituozhe 2 (the plans for the KT-2A were abandoned). The successful maiden flight of the rocket took place on March 2, 2017.

Technical specifications

The three-stage solid rocket KT-2 is to be based on the Chinese ICBM DF-31 and is able to bring a payload of 250 kilograms to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers, or a payload of about 350 kilograms to a standard low earth orbit with east orientation. It uses the first stage of the DF-31 ICBM and the first two stages of the DF-21 (or the first two stages of the KT-1). One variant, the KT-2A, uses two boosters from the first stage of Kaituozhe 1 .

Previous flights

The only launch so far took place on March 2, 2017 at 23:53 UTC from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome . The technology test satellite Tiankun-1 or 天 鲲 一号 (“Heavenly Giant Fish”, a mythical creature from the opening story of the “Zhuangzi” ) was brought into orbit. The manufacturer of the satellite was the Changfeng engineering office for electrical engineering, also known as "Second Academy", a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and one of the companies involved in Raumfahrt-Feststoffträgerraketen GmbH . According to US space surveillance data, the achieved orbit has a perigee of 374 kilometers, an apogee of 404 kilometers and an orbit inclination to the equator of 96.9 °.

As of December 31, 2019

Serial No.	Date and Time UTC	Launch site	payload	Type of payload	Payload in kg (gross 1 )	Orbit 2	Remarks
1	March 2, 2017 11:53 PM	Jiuquan	Tiankun-1	Technology testing satellite		374 × 404 km, 96.9 °	success

¹Take-off mass of the payload including carried fuel ( wet mass ).

²Track on which the payload was or is to be released by the upper stage; not necessarily the target orbit of the payload.

See also

• Kuaizhou
• List of missile types

Web links

• SpaceFlight101: China conducts secretive Debut Launch of Kaituozhe-2 Rocket

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Mark Wade: KT-1 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
2. ↑ Mark Wade: KT-2 in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
3. ^ Norbert Bruges: Kaituozhe KT-2. In: b14643.de. Retrieved April 22, 2020 (English). 
4. ↑ 哈尔滨 航天 风华 科技 股份 公司 关联 交易 公告. In: finance.sina.com.cn. August 2, 2003, accessed April 19, 2020 (Chinese). 
5. ↑ 泰阳 证券 有限 责任 公司. In: csrc.gov.cn. August 2, 2003, accessed April 23, 2020 (Chinese). 
6. ↑ 邹 华: 泰阳 证券 巨亏 11 亿 大 股东 现代 投资 1.6 亿 化 乌 有. In: politics.people.com.cn. May 11, 2005, accessed April 23, 2020 (Chinese). 
7. ↑ 航天 固体 运载火箭 有限公司. In: kanzhun.com. Retrieved April 27, 2020 (Chinese). 
8. ↑ 中国 航天 科 工 集团公司 换帅 许达哲 任 总经理. In: ccnews.people.com.cn. September 21, 2007, accessed April 23, 2020 (Chinese). 
9. ↑ 杨 国 香 et al .: 方正 证券 股份有限公司 与 航天 固体 运载火箭 有限公司 、 航天 科 工 资产 管理 有限公司 债权 转让 合同 纠纷 审判 监督 民事 裁定 书. In: court.gov.cn. August 19, 2014, accessed April 23, 2020 (Chinese). 
10. ↑ 王佳雯: 我国 成功 发射 “天 鲲 一号” 新 技术 试验 卫星. In: news.sciencenet.cn. March 3, 2017, accessed April 22, 2020 (Chinese). 
11. ↑ der-orion.com: Kaituozhe-2 makes successful maiden flight , accessed on March 22, 2017
12. ↑ bernd-leitenberger.de: KaiTuoZhe 1 + 2 , accessed on March 22, 2017
13. ↑ 王佳雯: 我国 成功 发射 “天 鲲 一号” 新 技术 试验 卫星. In: news.sciencenet.cn. March 3, 2017, Retrieved April 20, 2020 (Chinese).