HELSINKI — Chinese launch startup Landspace successfully sent satellites into orbit for the primary time Friday and revealed details of a brand new chrome steel rocket.
The third Zhuque-2 methane-liquid oxygen rocket lifted off at 6:39 p.m. Eastern (2339 UTC) Dec. 8 from the firm’s launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center within the Gobi Desert. Landspace confirmed launch success an hour after liftoff.
Aboard were the Honghu, Honghu-2 and Tianyi-33 satellites. The latter was developed by Spacety, a Chinese business satellite company sanctioned earlier this yr by the U.S. Treasury Department. 4 objects related to the launch have been cataloged by U.S. Space Force space domain awareness in 433 by 461-kilometer orbits inclined by 97.3 degrees.
Zhuque-2 (“Vermillion Bird-2”) is 49.5 meters long, with a diameter of three.35m and a mass at take-off of 220 tons. The primary stage is powered by 4 Tianque 80-ton-thrust methane-liquid oxygen engines.
It will possibly carry 1,500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). An upgraded version might be able to lifting 4,000 kg. The subsequent Zhuque-2 will use an improved second stage engine.
The launch marks the primary time Landspace sent satellites into orbit. The rocket’s first flight, which took place in December 2022, resulted in failure and the lack of an unconfirmed variety of satellites. The second, in July this yr, was successful. It carried no energetic payload.
Landspace is now trying to ramp up production and launch cadence. It plans to launch three Zhuque-2 rockets in 2024, six in 2025, and 12 in 2026, according to Zhejiang Day by day, citing the firm’s vp. The corporate also has latest, larger plans within the works.
Stainless-steel Zhuque-3
Landspace used the successful launch to disclose more defined plans for the chrome steel Zhuque-3. The plan for the rocket was first announced last month.
The 2-stage Zhuque-3 might be 4.5 meters in diameter and have a complete length of 76.6 meters. Its mass at liftoff might be about 660 tons and be powered by nine Tianque-12B engines. Payload capability to LEO might be 21,000 kilograms when expendable. It’ll carry as much as 18,300 kg when the primary stage is recovered downrange, or 12,500 kg when returning to the launch site.
The corporate plans a 100-meter-level hop test at the tip of the yr, China Youth Network reported. It’s targeting a final assembly and first flight of the Zhuque-3 in 2025. Each Zhuque-3 could also be reused as much as 20 times.
Landspace CEO Zhang Changwu told Chinese media that the firm is working on a 200-ton full-flow staged-combustion-cycle engine, to be ready in 2028. That engine would power a two-stage reusable launch vehicle with a diameter of 10 meters.
A paper authored by a Landspace rocket engine designer earlier this yr revealed that Landspace is working on a 200-ton-thrust full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methane rocket engine. China’s state-owned foremost space contractor, CASC, can also be developing an identical, Raptor-like engine to power its super heavy-lift launcher plans.
The paper’s writer, Zhang Xiaoping, notably left a job under CASC in 2018 to affix Landspace, sparking debate over the remuneration and retention of talent in China’s state-owned space sector as business plans in China began to take off.
Chinese business breakthrough
Landspace is one in every of China’s first business launch firms. It was established in 2015 after the Chinese government first opened up sections of the space sector to non-public capital in late 2014. The event is seen to be a response to business developments within the U.S.
The yr 2023 has been a breakthrough yr for business launch actors. Galactic Energy, iSpace, Landspace, Space Pioneer and state-owned spinoffs CAS Space and Expace have all reached orbit this yr, accounting for 16 of China’s 58 orbital launches.
This number includes the primary successful business liquid propellant launches, first with Space Pioneer’s kerosene-liquid oxygen Tianlong-2 after which the methalox Zhuque-2.
One other latest entrant, Orienspace, is gearing up for its first launch in mid-December. Gravity-1 is a large, 6.5 tons to LEO solid rocket that may launch from a sea platform.