The story behind the "opening red" of China's aerospace in 2022

Source: Global Times

On January 17, the first launch mission of China's space flight in 2022 was a complete success. However, behind this success, Chinese astronauts have encountered new challenges caused by the new crown pneumonia epidemic - the satellite developer who understands the state of the satellite cannot participate in the launch measurement and control task because of the epidemic prevention and control, and the flight control team of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center has to overcome many difficulties and successfully complete the launch measurement and control task of the satellite "full of multiple duties", ensuring the "opening red" of the first launch of China's aerospace in 2022. In an interview with the Global Times reporter, the members of the measurement and control team said that this situation is the first time in decades that this situation has been encountered.

"According to the standardized process of mission organization, the satellite developer will generally send a test team to Xi'an about half a month before the implementation of the mission, and participate in the final preparation of the launch measurement and control task with the staff of our Xi'an center, and jointly perform the launch and early orbit section measurement and control tasks until the satellite enters the working orbit and is put into business application." Wei Jun, senior engineer, the flight control team leader of the mission, introduced to the Global Times reporter.

However, due to the recent prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Xi'an, the most direct impact on the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center is that the test team that has completed the launch task cannot go, while the test team to be carried out cannot enter. A staff member of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center told the Global Times reporter that this situation, like this situation, which caused the satellite developers to be unable to participate in the mission due to force majeure factors, was the first time in decades that it was unprecedented. The satellite test team was a key factor in ensuring the success of the mission, and their absence will undoubtedly pose a huge challenge for the launch mission.

However, satellites will not be "isolated" and missions will not be "paused". As soon as it was determined that the satellite test team could not enter the scene to participate in the launch measurement and control, Wei Jun held a meeting with all the members of the flight control team to collect the new difficulties that each post needed to face without the on-site cooperation of the test team. "We have summarized a total of 32 aspects of 7 types of problems involving satellite status, remote telemetry instructions, sensor data, etc., which we need to solve from scratch and solve one by one."

Looking at this list of problems to be solved, Wei Jun and his flight control team must both "learn from scratch" and "break stereotypes".

The absence of the satellite test team first caused the inability of data to be transmitted to the ground in a timely, safe and effective manner. "In order to ensure data security, the measurement and control data of Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center uses a dedicated network transmission, and it is difficult for satellite developers to access our network system in a short period of time." Engineer Zhang Hanyong, who was in a communications support position, described the plight of the time to the Global Times reporter. "The realization of 'off-site measurement and control' has become a problem in front of the technical staff of the center."

With the help of the center's network experts, the flight control team immediately set up a "network support team", and after a week of hard work, it finally established a connection with the satellite developer thousands of miles away to provide basic support for the transmission of key information such as telemetry data.

The establishment of network communications is a landmark step in this mission. Subsequently, the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center carried out a large number of discussions with satellite developers and related units at key nodes such as technical status coordination, telemetry remote control confirmation, and task document triage through video conferencing, and wrote nearly 300 pages of documents continuously in a short period of time.

In order to ensure that the launch mission is foolproof, the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center also combined with the 32 hidden dangers collected in the early stage, timely optimized the mission organization mode, deeply analyzed the five system-level risks such as satellite status settings, key parameter review, and emergency situation disposal, discussed and formulated countermeasures item by item, and carried out multiple rounds of full-process drills for the coherence of the work coordination between the two sides in the implementation of the mission and the timeliness of emergency disposal.

"In addition to solving the problem of 'hooking up on the line', all the work after the launch mission needs to be done by ourselves sitting on the workstation of the test team. So we are more familiar with satellite technology and the details of mission implementation than ever before, so the workload will have to be increased several times. Wei Jun told the Global Times reporter.

To this end, the center organized 7 experts and satellite developers to form a one-on-one "study group" in the form of "online courses" to further refine the technical details of the mission, conduct multiple rounds of review of thousands of command data and thousands of telemetry parameters, and finally ensure the understanding of the entire flight control team on the technical details of the satellite, laying a solid foundation for the complete success of the mission.

At 10:35 on January 17, 2022, the Changerding rocket was launched on time at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, and a loud dispatch password was heard from time to time in the measurement and control hall of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center. After a period of flight, the satellite successfully entered the predetermined orbit, and the "Big Red Screen" arrived as promised. The developer of the satellite sent warm applause to the technical personnel of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center through the video conference system, and the chief designer of the satellite issued a sigh of "handing over the satellite to you thousands of miles away" with an exclamation.

According to the Global Times reporter, in 2022, China's aerospace will continue to open the "super" mode, especially the space station construction task represented by the launch of "four ships and two cabins" will be directly related to whether the Chinese space station can be "completed" as scheduled at the end of this year. The management of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center told the Global Times reporter. "In view of the new situation that continues to emerge, the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center is also further innovating the measurement and control technology and means, and this year's goal is still to achieve complete success and normal flight again and again, and help China's aerospace to create brilliant again!"