Chinese company Landscape continues to develop the Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3), a two-stage launch vehicle inspired by SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy. They achieved their first milestone in January 2024 with a vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) with their VTVL-1 test vehicle at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in northern China. In September, the company conducted a second VTVL test in which the prototype hovered for over 200 seconds (the previous test lasted 60 seconds), followed by a static fire test with a prototype booster in June.
The most recent milestone took place on Monday, October 22, at the Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in Dongfeng (where the JSLC is located). This was another static fire test in which the rocket was fully fueled but remained attached to the launch pad while the engines fired. This type of testing is a crucial pre-launch test (what NASA calls a “wet dress rehearsal”) and brings the company and China another step closer to a first flight test, expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“The vehicle will next proceed with the planned vertical integration rehearsal before returning to the technical zone for inspection and maintenance in preparation for the upcoming orbital launch and first stage recovery,” LandSpace officials explained via social media. The company is targeting a first stage recovery next year and hopes to reuse a recovered prototype next year.
*China’s Zhuque-3 missile during a static launch test. Photo credit: China Daily*
In traditional Chinese, Zhuque is the name of the vermilion bird that represents fire, the south and summer and is one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations. Like the Starship, the Zhuque-3 is made of stainless steel and relies on a combination of liquid methane (LCH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX) as propellants. The rocket will be powered by nine Tianque-12A (TQ-12A) engines and will be 65.9 m (216 ft) tall and weigh 550,000 kg (1,210,000 lb). Its payload capacity will be significantly less than that of the Starship: 11,800 kg (26,000 lbs) in expendable mode and 8,000 kg (18,000 lbs) in recoverable version.
Payload capacity is closer to the Falcon 9, which can carry 22,800 kg (50,265 lbs) to low Earth orbit (LEO). The company hopes to upgrade over time to the larger Zhuque-3E, which will be 76.2 m (250 feet) tall, powered by nine TQ-12B engines and capable of lifting up to 21,000 kg (46,000 lb) and 18,300 kg (40,300 lb) in expandable mode. The long-term goal is to create a reusable system that can compete with the Falcon family of rockets and bring the country closer to its goal of catching up with NASA.
China first announced its intention to develop a reusable launch system similar to Starship in 2021 during the sixth Aerospace Industry Achievement Exhibition (also known as “National Space Day”) in Nanjing. A video presentation titled “Our Global Arrival in the Space Transportation System” (which also featured a rail-mounted spaceplane) showed a two-stage rocket, similar in profile to the spacecraft, carrying commercial passengers into space.
In April, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) sent three taikonauts to the Tiangong space station for a six-month stay. A month later, China launched its Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which will conduct a sample return with the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) Kamoʻoalewa, followed by a rendezvous with the main belt comet. China has also indicated that it plans to double the size of its space station so that it could become a successor to the International Space Station (ISS), which is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030.
That same year, China hopes to send its first manned mission to the moon, followed by the development of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). A joint project between China and Russia’s national space agency (Roscosmos), this outpost is intended to compete with NASA’s Artemis program and similar efforts to establish a permanent human presence around the moon’s south polar region. These developments and plans are all part of China’s goal of becoming one of the three largest powers in space by the end of the decade, an intention the country announced about a decade ago.
Further reading: Space Daily
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