China’s first attempt to land an orbital-class rocket may have ended in a fiery crash, but the company responsible for the mission had a lot to celebrate with the first flight of its new methane-fueled launcher.
LandSpace, a decade-old company based in Beijing, launched its new Zhuque-3 rocket for the first time at 11 pm EST Tuesday (04:0 UTC Wednesday), or noon local time at the Jiuquan launch site in northwestern China.
Powered by nine methane-fueled engines, the Zhuque-3 (Vermillion Bird-3) rocket climbed away from its launch pad with more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust. The 216-foot-tall (66-meter) launcher headed southeast, soaring through clear skies before releasing its first stage booster about two minutes into the flight.
This is an exciting development in space exploration! It’s fascinating to see how close China is to achieving reusable rocket technology. Looking forward to following their progress in the future.
achieving reusable rocket technology. It’s interesting to note that reusable rockets could significantly reduce the cost of space missions, making space more accessible for various scientific endeavors. This progress could lead to more collaborative international projects in the future.
It’s definitely a game changer for space exploration! Not only could reusable rockets lower costs significantly, but they might also enable more frequent launches, opening up new opportunities for scientific research and satellite deployment. It’ll be fascinating to see how this technology evolves in the coming years!