This year’s 40 space launches will set record

China will carry out at least 40 space missions this year, doubling the number in 2017 and setting a record for the nation, China Daily has learned.

The most eye-catching of the missions will be the third flight of China’s largest carrier rocket — Long March 5, whose last mission failed in July — and the Chang’e 4 lunar landing mission that will put a robotic probe on the far side of the moon.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the primary contractor for the nation’s space programs, said in a statement published on Wednesday that its Long March-series rockets will take part in 35 missions in 2018. It said 2018 will be the busiest and most important year for the space industry giant since its founding in 1999 because it is determined to use the year’s missions to “reverse the unfavorable situations” caused by recent failures.

Another State-owned space company, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, will conduct at least five space launches using its solid-propellant rockets this year — four by Kuaizhou 1A rockets and one by Kuaizhou 11, the new model’s maiden flight.

The two companies did not release detailed timetables for the missions. Their combined launch schedule will set a record as the busiest year for China’s space industry. Currently, 2016 holds the record for the most space missions, with 22 launches.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp’s statement is the first official confirmation that Long March 5 will make at least one flight this year and that Chinese space engineers have resolved the rocket’s problems.

As China’s mightiest and most technologically advanced launch vehicle, the 57-meter-tall Long March 5 was first flown in November 2016 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan.

However, the gigantic rocket’s second mission, to lift the Shijian 18 experimental satellite, the nation’s largest and heaviest satellite, was thwarted in July as a result of the rocket’s mechanical malfunctions during the midcourse of the flight. The rocket and satellite fell into an area of deep ocean.

As a result, a plan to use Long March 5’s third mission in last year’s fourth quarter for the Chang’e 5 mission — to take samples on the moon and bring them to Earth — had to be rescheduled to give engineers more time to examine the rocket’s design and quality and to use additional launches to verify its reliability before entrusting it with Chang’e 5.

The Chang’e 4 mission has been scheduled for the end of this year, and will use a Long March 3B rocket to put a probe into orbit. The probe will then conduct mankind’s first soft landing, using small engines to slow the descent, on the far side of the moon.