THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE SOLID ROCKET MOTORS IN CHINA

China has undertaken to research and develop composite solid propellan t rocket motors since 1958. At the request of the development of space technology, composite solid propellant rocket motor has developed fro m small to large, step by step. For the past thirty eight years, much progress has made, many technical obstacles, such as motor design, cas e materials and their processing technology, propellant formulations a nd manufacture, nozzles and thrust vector control, safe ignition, envi ronment tests, nondestructive inspection and quality assurance, static firing test and measurement etc. have been solved. A serial of solid rocket motors have been offered for China's satellites launch. The sys tems of research, design, test and manufacture of solid rocket motors have been formed. (C) 1997 International Astronautical Federation. Pub lished by Elsevier Science Ltd.