China company launches methane-oxygen-fueled rocket into sun-synchronous orbit for first time in world

Chinese private aerospace company LandSpace has launched a methane-oxygen-fueled rocket into space for the first time in the world, ahead of the American SpaceX in the global race in this domain.

The Zhuque-2 rocket was successfully launched into space from a space station located in the Gobi Desert.

The spacecraft successfully delivered a test payload into a sun-synchronous orbit, the world's first such feat for a methane-liquid oxygen-fueled rocket.

Earlier this year, two unsuccessful attempts to launch rockets powered by such fuel into space were made by the American company Relativity Space's Terran 1 and SpaceX's Starship rockets. It is known that LandSpace had already made such an attempt on December 14 last year, but it also had ended in failure, according to Bloomberg, due to the failure of the auxiliary engine of the second stage.

Global spaceflight today is moving toward the use of methane technology because of its potentially high efficiency and low cost. In addition, such options are optimally suited for multiple uses due to the low toxicity of the fuel. The successful launch of Zhuque-2 is another achievement of private Chinese aerospace companies.

Zhuque-2 is a liquid-fueled two-stage rocket with a height of 49.5 meters and a diameter of 3.35 meters. It can deliver six tons of payload to low Earth orbit and four tons to sun-synchronous orbit.

The first stage's Tianque-12 (TQ-12) liquid methane engine provides 268 tons of thrust, the second stage uses Tianque-12 and Tianque-11 engines, the latter having an auxiliary role in steering and speed control. Development of the TQ-12 began in July 2019, and it took four years to create a working version.