Very impressive! Now only a matter of time before first landing an reuse. Soon we will likely have at least four companies/organizations that are capable of reuse (SpaceX, Blue Origin, CALT and Electron). I believe some more Chinese private ventures will also be joining that club soon!
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
So far just China has quite a number of contenders for reusable rockets and reusable-related tech. And that's just the tip of the iceburg; there's also numerous space-planes, and electromagnetic launch sled designs from other companies. The future is going to be crazy!
- LandSpace (蓝箭航天): Developing the Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3), a stainless steel, liquid methane rocket designed for 20+ reuses, with a 10km vertical landing test completed.
- Space Pioneer (天兵科技): Known for the Tianlong-3 (TL-3) liquid-liquid, two-stage rocket designed for reusability.
- Galactic Energy (星河动力): Developing the Pallas-1 (PL-1), a kerosene-liquid oxygen medium-lift rocket with planned first-stage reusability.
- Deep Blue Aerospace (深蓝航天): Focused on the Nebula-1 (星云-1) rocket, completing high-altitude vertical recovery tests.
- iSpace (星际荣耀): Developing the Hyperbola-3 (双曲线三号) liquid methane-oxygen rocket, aiming for maiden flight in 2025.
- CAS Space (中科宇航): Developing the Kinetica-2 (力箭二号) medium-lift rocket with reusability features.
- CASC (中国航天科技集团): The state-owned entity, developing the Long March 10A and other next-generation rockets with reusable configurations.
- LinkSpace (翎客航天): A pioneer in VTVL (vertical take-off, vertical landing) technology in China.
- Space Epoch (太空天工): Focused on developing stainless steel rocket technology for reusability.
- CosmoLeap (大航跃迁): Developing advanced rocket technology including chopstick landing towers.
What I want to know is, will China surpass the West and build rockets that don't look like they should be ribbed for pleasure?
I mean being fair most of these will likely die or get bought out and leave only CALT, CASC and maybe 2-3 main private providers. LandSpace is probably going to be the first private company in China to achieve reusability, Space Pioneer despite all the memes around it atleast managed to deliver something even if TL-3 doesn't actually have the ability to be reused for the first few launches. Everyone else from there onwards is pretty far from actual reusability.
AFAIK, I still feel like most launches in the foreseeable future will be state launchers like the upcoming LM-10C which is rumored to deliver 20t+ to LEO with reusability and probably become the Chinese Falcon 9 with private companies like LandSpace and Space Pioneer to provide excess capacity for commercial applications.
Close up of Mengzhou and the Catch hook system, a simple yet dependable method
The diameter of the Mengzhou capsule was never disclosed, previous informations said 4.1m or 4.5m, visual comparison give 4.2m, assuming this (Spacelens says the same) and according to the pressure vessel diagram given in "Research on Thermal Control System Optimization of China New Generation Manned Spacecraft Reentry Capsule", the pressurized volume should be approximately 14.5m³ (for comparison Apollo CM (3 crew) 10,4m³ ; Orion (4 crew) 19,5m³
The diameter of the Mengzhou capsule was never disclosed, previous informations said 4.1m or 4.5m, visual comparison give 4.2m, assuming this (Spacelens says the same) and according to the pressure vessel diagram given in "Research on Thermal Control System Optimization of China New Generation Manned Spacecraft Reentry Capsule", the pressurized volume should be approximately 14.5m³ (for comparison Apollo CM (3 crew) 10,4m³ ; Orion (4 crew) 19,5m³
All in all it is a good looking rocket/spaceship.Close up of Mengzhou and the Catch hook system, a simple yet dependable method
The diameter of the Mengzhou capsule was never disclosed, previous informations said 4.1m or 4.5m, visual comparison give 4.2m, assuming this (Spacelens says the same) and according to the pressure vessel diagram given in "Research on Thermal Control System Optimization of China New Generation Manned Spacecraft Reentry Capsule", the pressurized volume should be approximately 14.5m³ (for comparison Apollo CM (3 crew) 10,4m³ ; Orion (4 crew) 19,5m³
The paper that you quoated actually says 4.1m is the max diameter of the crew module.
Another paper in 2021 says that the maximum diameter of service module is 4.5m.
Here is the test article in 2020, it does not seem that there is a 0.4 meter difference unless some protrusions like in green circles are counted in 4.5m making the service module structure less than 4.5m.
BTW, the 2020 vehicle was not representative of the actual production design which looks like this:
The extra diameter is probably just the notch from the service module.
On another note, Spacelens mentioned phase II of Tiangong to increase the amount of Taikonauts in orbit to 6 which makes sense considering Mengzhou is designed to carry 6-7 crew to LEO but I was wondering if there were actual confirmation on Tiangong expansion happening soon?
Yes, the diameter of the operational Mengzhou has been subject to debate, it was only more or less solved a few days ago when they stacked it on the CZ-10A test vehicle and people took proper pictures of it, it is about 4.2m; not 4.1m or 4.5m; Spacelens reports the same:
CASC said in May 2025 that they're modifying CZ-5B to prevent uncontrolled reentries for the extension modules so it's still planned
However the patent that SAST submitted last september, showing a new Tiangong module design with a node (and a large experiment airlock), suggests that it's possible that the 4th module won't be Tianhe 2 (the backup of Tianhe that is still in storage), if that is the case, then a launch is likely a few years away at minimum.
Mengzhou is not expected to replace Shenzhou for crew rotations until 2030 (so after the manned lunar landing), so there is no urgency.
As others have said, both ZQ-3 and CZ-12A did pretty well.
I would consider ZQ-3, CZ-12A, and CZ-10A launches to be all in the same ballpark of success (former two being new rockets successfully launching payloads to orbit and getting relatively close to landing attempt; CZ-10A successfully doing a Max-Q test and simulating a catch but not outright attempting it)