China debuts two new rockets to end November

China has performed over a half dozen launches in November, debuting two new launch vehicles. One of these is from a state-owned enterprise while the other is from a privately-held company, and builds off of previous successes.

The first debut took place on November 27th with LandSpace’s improved Zhuque-2E launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Area 96A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This mission was primarily a test flight of the upgraded launch vehicle but also carried two payloads.

Zhuque-2E shares many commonalities with Zhuque-2, keeping the first-stage and upgrading the second-stage. This upgraded second-stage uses a common bulkhead design to save weight and has switched to using a single TQ-15A engine, replacing the TQ-12 engine and four TQ-11 vernier thrusters. The TQ-15A engine will allow the second-stage to reignite, opening up a wider range of missions not previously possible and strengthening LandSpace’s market position.

Two relights of the TQ-15A engine on the second-stage are believed to have taken place due to the stage's distance from the payloads following launch.

The two payloads that were onboard for Zhuque-2E's first flight were Guangchuan 01 (光传01) and Guangchuan 02 (光传02), with the payload's name literally meaning ‘Light Transmission’ in English. These satellites are believed to be for testing inter-satellite optical laser link technologies for large satellite constellations.

LandSpace believes that Zhuque-2E's first flight performed a series of firsts for a Chinese commercial launch company, with some of the firsts being: the use of a common bulkhead tank design, the first niobium alloy nozzle extension, the first use of cold gas thrusters for stage separation, and the first relightable liquid rocket engine.

The second debut came at the very end of the month, on November 30th. This debut mission had the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology's Long March 12 launch vehicle liftoff from Commercial Launch Pad 2 at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, on the east coast of Hainan province.

The Long March 12's debut made it the widest diameter single-core Long March vehicle to date, with a diameter of 3.8 meters, while also carrying the 5.2-meter diameter fairing, becoming the largest diameter non-inline fairing used on a Long March rocket. Four YF-100K engines, upgraded YF-100 engines with a ~5-tons of thrust improvement, were powering the debut flight. These engines will also be used for the Long March 10 Moon rocket.

Two payloads were also onboard for this mission, with the rocket deploying Satellite Internet Technology Test Satellite (将卫星互联网技术试验卫星) and Technology Test Satellite 03 (技术试验卫星03) into low Earth orbit after its successful first mission.

Both of these debut missions come partway through China's transition away from older hypergolic fuelled launch vehicles. This transition has both state-owned and privately held companies developing many new kerosene-oxygen, methane-oxygen, and solid-fuelled launch vehicles. Focus has also been placed on making these new vehicles cheap to manufacture for reduced launch costs while maintaining reliability.

What are these launch vehicles?

Zhuque-2E

Zhuque-2E is LandSpace’s privately-developed commercial launch vehicle, and is largely based on the company’s Zhuque-2 vehicle. The vehicle consists of two stages both burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:

• 6,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit
• 4,000 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit

Four TQ-12 engines power the first stage to generate 282 tons of thrust while burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The second-stage is powered by a single TQ-15A engine, also burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen, to generate 85 tons of thrust.

On the launch pad, Zhuque-2E is 47.3 meters tall and weighs 219,000 kilograms when fully fuelled. The first-stage, second-stage, and fairing have a diameter of 3.35 meters.

So far LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket series has only flown from Launch Area 96A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in the west of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the north of Gansu province.

Further upgrades are planned for Zhuque-2E to increase the first-stage thrust to 327 tons via the introduction of the TQ-12A engine, with an increased liftoff weight of 264,000 kilograms too. These upgrades will also likely introduce the change to a 4.2-meter diameter fairing and an increase in vehicle length to 55 meters.

Long March 12

The Long March 12 is a new launch vehicle from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. Both stages of the launch vehicle burn rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.

The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:

• 12,000 kilograms to a low Earth orbit
• 6,000 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit

Powering the first-stage are four YF-100K engines generating a combined thrust of 510 tons while burning liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene. The second-stage is powered by two YF-115 engines generating 36 tons of thrust, also burning liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene.

On the launchpad, the rocket stands a believed 59 meters in height, while having a first and second stage diameter of 3.8 meters. Fully fuelled the Long March 12 is believed to weigh 433,000 kilograms. The fairing of the Long March 12 is also believed to have options for either a 3.8, 4.2, or 5.2-meter diameter, depending on the needs of the mission.

Currently, the Long March 12 has only flown from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, on the east coast of Hainan province.