A private Chinese aerospace company has won the race to launch a giant rocket powered by methane and liquid oxygen.The Zhuque-2, a carrier rocket from LandSpace, blasted off at 9am on Wednesday (12th July 2023) morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert.The rocket successfully delivered a test payload into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), the first in the world to make such an achievement.Earlier this year, two other liquid oxygen methane rockets – the Terran 1 from Relativity Space in the US and SpaceX’s Starship – failed in their maiden attempts to reach orbit.This morning’s lift-off marks the second attempt for the Zhuque-2, after an unsuccessful launch on December 14.
Methane-powered engines – with their high performance and low operational costs – are particularly suited for the developing trend of reusable rockets. The technology is regarded as the front-running design in the new era of rocketry.The Zhuque-2 team’s achievement is another success for China’s private aerospace sector this year, following the successful launch in April of Space Pioneer’s liquid-propelled Tianlong-2.The Zhuque-2 is a two-stage liquid-propellant carrier rocket, with all independently developed engines.According to China Space News, the 49.5 metres (162ft) long rocket with a diameter of 3.35 metres (10.9ft) has a carrying capacity of six tonnes for low Earth orbit and four tonnes for SSO..Source : Scmp
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