China's Space Program Thread II

[Xiongmao]

High-resolution images from the successful tethered ignition test of the 1st stage of the Long March 10 moon rocket.

Wow, glorious! I assume that this is the first time that all 7 engines have been tested at once? I remember a couple of years ago, they did a static test already but only with 3 engines at the time.

 

[sunnymaxi]

The launch mission failed, reportedly due to a second-stage separation failure. If confirmed, this will inevitably impact the progress of the ZQ-3 program.

This was the 3rd flight of Zhuque-2E, and the 6th flight of Zhuque-2 series.. also this was the second failure of Zhuque-2 series overall, after a failure in December 2022 during its debut flight.

If the failure was TQ-15A-related, the debut flight of the two-stage partially reusable Zhuque-3 may be delayed due to its use of that engine as well.. so we need to wait if this failure actually related with Engine or some other issue.

The second ZQ-3's first stage is almost completed.

This is arguably the most important rocket right now in China's private space industry and Landspace has full backing of local government.

and Yesterday Spacesail constellation announced, Land Space, Space Pionner & Cas space each got a contract for launching Qianfan constellation sats. and The deadline is Mar 2026..

Until today it was ZQ-3...

still it is.

First Deep Blue Aerospace, now this. Its shaping up to be a rough year for China's space industry. I wonder if we will see any progress towards VTVL at all this year. Last year they reached 10km on two separate occasions.

yeah rough year for private space industry. but Zhuque-2 is not a VTVL rocket and this rocket shared same tech base with upcoming main VTVL rocket Zhuque-3.. see the pic above.

Zhuque-3 has to be succeed at any cost. as i said earlier, even if not reusable in the beginning. at least Guowang/Spacesail will have another heavy lift rocket aside from Long March series.



Zhuque-3 just won the contract of Spacesail constellation launch.. also officially tied up with Guowang. the base and improved variants have 12/21.3 tons LEO capacity with single use.
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Landspace establishing a new production base in Wuxi. This base will focus on developing and manufacturing medium and large liquid-propellant rocket engines.

 

[TheRathalos]

This is arguably the most important rocket right now in China's private space industry and Landspace has full backing of local government.

and Yesterday Spacesail constellation announced, Land Space, Space Pionner & Cas space each got a contract for launching Qianfan constellation sats. and The deadline is Mar 2026..

still it is.

I've seen a couple informed blogger/insider allude to meaningful progress of the CZ-12A/4-m-RLV (Methalox) in the past months, if ZQ-3 ends being delayed more because of this failure CZ-12A may have its inaugural launch & landing attempt before.

Anyway, hopefully landspace proves itself to governmental projects with future Guowang and haolong launches. I'll be honest, the fact that they described this launch as a "test flight" in today's communique despite sending a governmental (Guowang) payload to the bottom of the pacific ocean reminds me of the worst excesses of the American private spaceflight sector...

Also an interesting remark from this Spacesail contract: Since one of its requirement was that companies that bid must "not have been penalized by regulatory authorities in the past 3 years", it implies that Space Pioneer was not punished for last year's failure.

YF-215 to go for whole system test in October 2025


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The "semi-system test" of YF-215 happened in September 2024.
The other 150tf kerolox closed cycle is intriguing, especially the mention of 9 engines in a 5m stage. this doesn't really match launcher projects that I know, possibly a longer term evolution of CZ-10?

 

[by78]

The 8th batch of Guowang/China Satnet satellites as seen from the ground.

 

[GulfLander]

Video of test

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1956277389870424241

 

[Michael90]

The launch mission failed, reportedly due to a second-stage separation failure. If confirmed, this will inevitably impact the progress of the ZQ-3 program.

Surprising, since the last time this rocket launched was a success. So probability of failure was very low this time but it still happened . Guess there was an issue/mistake somewhere.

 

[Michael90]

If they can get the issue fixed and launch every 3 months like starship, the progress timeline is still acceptable.

If you noticed, it only takes 3 month for starship from building a new rocket to launch. One year they can launch 4 times.

lol dude SpaceX is a different beast altogether. They make everything looks easy but it’s definitely not. lol. You realise they now launch over 100 rockets every year by themselves ? (137 last year and target of 180 this year). The gap between them and others is massive and it’s growing every year.
Noticed they have a Reusable rocket launch for over 8years now and yet no other company or country has been able to do that. At this rate it will be 10years after they did it before we can see one company matching them(that’s being optimistic ). So it’s not as easy as it seems. So to expect a company like Landspace to match spacex speed is not realistic to be honest. I think we can expect another try after the issue has been identified and resolved maybe in just about a year.
I still believe Landspace is China’s best and most promising private rocket launcher and viable reusable rocket launcher this decade ending 2030. They will be the first to get this right in China.

 

[AndrewJ]

A close view of CZ-10 test.

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So to expect a company like Landspace to match spacex speed is not realistic to be honest. I think we can expect another try after the issue has been identified and resolved maybe in just about a year.
I still believe Landspace is China’s best and most promising private rocket launcher and viable reusable rocket launcher this decade ending 2030. They will be the first to get this right in China.

Maybe CASC can make reusable CZ-10A ready earlier than LandSpace's ZQ-3? It's too ironic if that becomes true.

 

[Xiongmao]

Wow, glorious! I assume that this is the first time that all 7 engines have been tested at once? I remember a couple of years ago, they did a static test already but only with 3 engines at the time.

Yes, 7 engines confirmed.

https://imgur.com/a/AObACs1

 

[Michael90]

A close view of CZ-10 test.

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Maybe CASC can make reusable CZ-10A ready earlier than LandSpace's ZQ-3? It's too ironic if that becomes true.

That’s highly unlikely, Landspace is still more ahead in their reusable launch rocket project than CASC. They might have been a hiccup which is normal in the space industry but they will eventually iron out those little issues. You learn more from failures than even success. So it’s no big deal.