A major Chinese space enterprise is developing two new carrier rocket models and plans to conduct their debut flights next year, according to a top company official.
Speaking on Monday at a commercial space forum in Wuhan, Hubei province, Zha Xiongquan, chairman of Expace Technology, said the company is developing the Kuaizhou 6 and Kuaizhou 12 rockets to meet the country's rapidly growing demand for high-capacity launch vehicles.
"Expace has been leveraging mature technologies and existing production capacity to develop the Kuaizhou 12 — a low-cost medium-lift rocket that uses both solid and liquid propellants. It will have a launch cost of less than 20,000 yuan ($3,000) per kilogram," Zha said.
The Kuaizhou 12 is scheduled to make its debut flight and enter commercial service in 2027. Its introduction is expected to help China's space industry break the bottleneck in low-cost, large-scale launch capacity.
Zha said the company is also accelerating development of the reusable Kuaizhou 6 liquid-fueled rocket, which is on track to complete its first orbital flight and first-stage recovery next year.
According to Expace designers, the Kuaizhou 12 will be about 47 meters tall and have a fairing diameter of 5.2 meters. It will be capable of carrying 10 metric tons of payload to a typical low-Earth orbit.
The Kuaizhou 6 will be much taller at 73 meters, and it will have a booster diameter of 4.5 meters. In a nonrecoverable mission, the rocket will be able to carry 18 tons of payload to a low-Earth orbit. For reusable flights, which involve recovery of the first-stage booster, it will be able to carry 14 tons to the same orbit.
The Kuaizhou is China's leading solid-propellant rocket series, in contrast to the Long March family, which relies mainly on liquid propellants. To date, the two main Kuaizhou models — 1A and 11 — have completed 37 flights, deploying nearly 100 satellites into space.
Zha said at the forum that the Kuaizhou 1A and Kuaizhou 11 are expected to carry out more than 50 launches over the next three years.
"Through regular, high-frequency launch services, these rockets will further cement the country's global lead in space rapid-response capabilities and support national emergency-response requirements," he said.
zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn
