New Long March rocket to be bigger, more powerful

Chinese rocket scientists are developing a new, super-heavy carrier rocket known as the Long March 9.

Designers at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology are currently working on the baseline model of the Long March 9. The three-stage rocket will stand about 110 meters tall, and have a liftoff weight of about 4,000 metric tons and a thrust of nearly 6,000 tons, and its core stage will be about 10 meters in diameter.

The new rocket will be powerful enough to carry craft weighing up to 50 tons to an Earth-moon transfer trajectory for lunar missions such as the construction of a large-scale science or mining outpost. It will also be able to send spacecraft on deep-space missions, including the ambitious venture to place Chinese astronauts on Mars.

In addition to the baseline model, the structure of a second model for spaceflights to low-Earth orbit has also been sketched out.

The second model will have two stages, which means it will be shorter than the baseline rocket, and will be capable of deploying spacecraft with a combined weight of 150 tons to a low-Earth orbit.

The first stage, which has the strongest lift power, will be reusable on both models, which will significantly reduce costs.

Once the Long March 9 enters operation, it will have a carrying capacity five times greater than that of the Long March 5, which is currently the country's most powerful rocket.

China has 23 kinds of carrier rockets in active service, and most belong to the Long March family, which is produced by State-owned giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

With the government encouraging and supporting the growth of private space companies, China also has several privately built rockets.

The TL 2 is the newest model. Made by Space Pioneer in Beijing, it reached orbit earlier this month, becoming the country's first privately built liquid-fuel rocket to fulfill an orbital mission.

Uniquely, the TL 2 achieved success on its maiden flight.

All previous privately built liquid-propellant rocket types, developed by companies including SpaceX and Virgin Orbit, failed their first flights.

Prior to Space Pioneer's launch, i-Space and Galactic Energy, private companies also based in Beijing, had used solid-propellant rockets to transport satellites to orbit. Solid-propellant rockets are easier to design and make than liquid-fuel rockets, but they have a smaller capacity and cannot be used to launch large satellites or to deploy spacecraft to high orbits.

Last December, Beijing company LandSpace carried out the first test flight of the ZQ 2, the world's first methane-propelled carrier rocket, at a launch facility in the Gobi Desert.

The rocket successfully crossed the Karman Line, the globally recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and the edge of space, but malfunctioned in its second stage and failed to reach orbit.

The ZQ 2's second flight is scheduled to take place this summer.