The Long March 2F Rocket is China’s first launch vehicle developed for a manned space mission. It is the country's longest launch vehicle and has the heaviest lift-off mass, comprising four boosters, a first stage, second stage, fairing, and escape tower. The job of the rocket carrier is to put the Shenzhou V Spaceship into its designated orbit. Now, let’s take a closer look at the rocket's flight process.
Long March 2F will take 585 seconds to complete its flight and place Shenzhou V into its designated orbit. The whole flight is divided into two stages.
The rocket is programmed to veer onto course 10 seconds following lift-off. At the 120th second, the rocket detaches from its escape tower. Twenty seconds later, booster engines are turned off before the four boosters are detached from the rocket. At the 159th second of flight, engines for the first stage boosters are switched off and the first stage rocket is detached from the second.
At the 200th second of the rocket's flight, the rectifiers are abandoned. At the 463rd second, the main engine for the second stage rocket is turned off. After 585 seconds of flight, the 2nd stage rocket is detached from the spacecraft.
During the flight, the rocket will fly over northern China, covering Gansu Province, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong provinces. As planned, the Shenzhou V Spaceship will first fly on an elliptical orbit with an orbital inclination angle of 42.6 degrees. It will then shift into a circular orbit with an altitude of 343 kilometers. The spacecraft will complete one orbit every one and a half hours, and will circle the Earth 14 times before landing in a pre-selected area.
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