China's Space Program Thread II

[by78]

A commercial reusable cargo spacecraft developed by a company out of Guiyang is planned to be launched in the 2nd half of this year. It has a cargo space of 330 liters and is aimed at sending various experiments into space.

A mockup of the spacecraft.

 

[by78]

CAS Space/Zhongke has broken ground on a new test bench for liquid engines. The test bench is located northeast of Guangzhou and will be used both for testing engines before delivery and for developing future engines (up to 400-ton).

CAS Space/Zhongke's new engine test facility has been completed. It has test stands for 30-ton, 200-ton, and 400-ton-class engines. The facility will be open to all around the world on a commercial basis.

 

[by78]

Some presentation slides from Zhongke/CAS Space.

Lijian-2 Heavy (PR-2H), 22-ton capacity to LEO, 15-ton capacity to SSO:

Lihong-2 orbital tourism vehicle:

Liqing-2 and Liqing-2 LOX/Kerosene engines the Lijian and Lihong series of launch vehicles:

 

[by78]

Nice panoramas of Wenchang launch complex and Hainan commercial spaceport.

 

[escobar]

LAUNCH at 0200 UTC Sep 9 of 遥感四十五号卫星 (Yaogan-45) by CZ-7A from Wenchang

YG-45 is a ~8t SAST (

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) reconnaissance sat put into a very interesting highly elliptical orbit: 7468 x 203 km 20 deg inc. First time China sent a satellite into such an orbit.

 

[by78]

Despite the experience learnt from the construction of the LCC-1 & 2 of HICSLC, progress almost seems slow compared to the CZ-12 launch sites in Jiuquan
CZ-12-compatible sites construction in Hainan, Jiuquan and Shandong is actually insane, in term of launch site number there hasn't been anything similar anywhere worldwide since the missile and space races of the 50s/60s
April:View attachment 160325
September:
View attachment 160326

The soil conditions in Hainan is more complicated than the semi-desert at Jiuquan. The high water table requires coffer dams be built before foundation excavation could even begin.

 

[by78]

More images of construction activities for the phase II expansion of Hainan Commercial Spaceport.

 

[by78]

The Chinese space station transiting a lunar eclipse in-progress.

 

[by78]

A first look at an assembled Galactic Energy Pallas-1 rocket.

Gimbal system test of the Pallas-1 first stage, which is powered by seven CQ-50 engines.

https://imgur.com/a/I6vcPwo

 

[by78]

Yet another launch startup has joined the race. Silver Trail (银色轨迹) was registered on April 9th of 2025. Its only prospective product is the reusable Terminator-05 launch vehicle burning LOX/Methane. It's of stainless steel construction with a diameter of 4m and a height of 67m. Capacity to LEO is 22.1t (single use), 19.1t (usable), or 13t (usable with return to launch site). It features mid-body rudders and six landing legs.