According to China’s state media, a Chinese private company has successfully launched the world’s inaugural methane-liquid oxygen space rocket into orbit.
The Zhuque-2 carrier rocket took off at 9 am local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northwest China. State media reported that the mission was executed in accordance with the designated procedure.
This achievement marks the second attempt by LandSpace, a Beijing-based company and one of the pioneers in China’s commercial space industry, to launch the Zhuque-2 rocket. Its triumph places China at the forefront of developing the next generation of launch vehicles. These vehicles are not only regarded as environmentally friendly, but also safer, more cost-effective, and ideal for powering reusable rockets.
LandSpace’s initial launch endeavor for the Zhuque-2 in December had been unsuccessful.
The news of LandSpace’s prosperous launch coincided with China’s announcement of plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030. This places China ahead of competitors like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin in the race to develop methane-fueled space vehicles.
As per Chinese state media, one of the two rockets planned by China will carry a spacecraft destined to land on the moon’s surface, while the other will transport the astronauts.
According to an engineer from the China Manned Space Agency, both rockets will enter the moon’s orbit. After a successful docking, Chinese astronauts will board the lunar lander and descend onto the moon’s surface. This development was reported on Wednesday by state media, quoting the engineer.
This twin-rocket strategy will overcome a longstanding technological challenge for China, as it enables the transportation of both astronauts and a moon lander probe into space using a heavy-duty rocket with sufficient power.
Once the Chinese astronauts have concluded their scientific tasks and collected moon samples, the lander will carry them back to the orbiting spacecraft. From there, they will return to Earth. Zhang Hailian, the deputy chief engineer at the China Manned Space, shared this information at a summit held in Wuhan, a central Chinese city.
In 2020, China successfully retrieved lunar samples from an uncrewed mission, becoming the third nation after the United States and the Soviet Union to accomplish this feat.
LandSpace’s methane-liquid oxygen rocket is highly regarded for being environmentally friendly, safer, cost-effective, and suitable as a propellant for reusable rockets.
In addition, the Chinese company achieved the distinction of being the second private Chinese company to launch a liquid-propellant rocket. Earlier in April, Beijing Tianbing Technology accomplished a successful launch of a kerosene-oxygen rocket, marking another significant stride in the pursuit of developing rockets that can be refueled and reused.
Since 2014, when the Chinese government opened doors to private investment in the space industry, numerous commercial space companies have rapidly emerged. Among the earliest and most well-funded participants in this endeavor was LandSpace.
