Long march 7 is on the pad!

[xenomorph555]

After being transported to Hainan island on Christmas day, the LM-7 is finally on the pad, although not for launch but tests. Launch is said to be in April next year

[makinyashikino]

Do the Chinese transport their rockets by truck?!

[astropapi1]

Do the Chinese transport their rockets by truck?!

Well...

[Voidryder]

Good looking rocket. Let's hope all tests go fine.

[lurkoholic]

Well...

http://history.nasa.gov/ap10fj/photos/ground/ap10-SiC-noIDa.jpg

Faster than a barge

[Kryten]

Do the Chinese transport their rockets by truck?!

Traditionally by rail, but CZ-7 is intended to use a new spaceport that's accessed by ship. Road transport is only from factory->port, and port->launch site.

[bs1110101]

I cant find a picture of any Chinese rocket on a train, though that's how they did it with the Soyuz, so thinking they used the same idea makes sense.

Does anyone know which rocket this is a booster from?

Edited January 29, 2015 by bs1110101
Forgot picture, formatting.

[Kryten]

That's the first stage from CZ-3A Y24, which put up the Fengyun 2A weather sat on December 31st.

[sgt_flyer]

I cant find a picture of any Chinese rocket on a train, though that's how they did it with the Soyuz, so thinking they used the same idea makes sense.

http://i.imgur.com/mjfMPQD.jpg

a quick note regarding this picture of soyuz: you need to consider this specific train as a transport erector platform it is only used to transport the rocket from the russian's horizontal assembly building to the launch pad.

china uses a Vertical assembly building with a Crawler style vertical rollout. http://www.universetoday.com/90464/shenzhou-8-rolled-out-for-blastoff-to-chinas-1st-space-station-on-november-1/

for soyuz, the various rocket parts are shipped to Baikonour using trains for final integration, but it's inside the sort of containers you can see in this article :

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/07/russian_rockets_ship_to_guiana/

- this article is specifically dedicated to the transport of the rocket between the Samara rocket facility to Guyana, but they use the same containers for Baikonour - it's just that they put those containers on trains instead of putting them in a boat )

Edited January 29, 2015 by sgt_flyer

[Ikaneko]

Do the Chinese transport their rockets by truck?!

If you think about, how many other ways are there to transport large and unwieldy components over land?

If you crack a joke that wasn't thought through, we will eat you alive in the science labs.

[Moar Boosters]

I wonder if fully comp insurance would cover you if you accidentally crashed your car into a $50million rocket.