China’s First Stainless Steel Rocket Completes Vertical Takeoff and Landing Test

On September 11, according to CCTV news, China’s independently developed ‘ZQ-3’ reusable vertical recovery test rocket completed a 10-kilometer vertical takeoff and landing return flight test today at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The report states that this experiment marks a significant breakthrough in the reusable rocket technology of China’s commercial space industry, taking a critical step towards achieving high-capacity, low-cost, high-frequency, and reusable space launches in the future.

ZQ-3 is China’s first stainless steel launch vehicle, larger and with a stronger payload capacity compared to ZQ-2, developed by LandSpace.

LandSpace Technology Co., Ltd. (LandSpace) founder and CEO Zhang Changwu previously revealed that ZQ-3 will conduct full rocket orbital validation next year, with plans to quickly retrieve the first stage after the orbital validation, and achieve reusability of the rocket’s first stage by 2026.

Zhang Changwu stated that the ZQ-3 is a reusable launch vehicle, with an initial goal of achieving the ability for more than 20 reuses, and it is expected to be launched in the first half of next year. He also revealed that according to the plan, LandSpace will arrange 4 launch missions this year, and the launch plan for next year will double.

The ZQ-3 uses the self-developed Tianque series liquid oxygen-methane engines from LandSpace, with the first stage equipped with 9 TQ-12B engines and the second stage configured with 1 TQ-15B vacuum engine. In the future, the first stage of the rocket can be reused up to 20 times. The rocket has a one-time mission low Earth orbit carrying capacity of 21.3 tons, a mission capability for area recovery of 18.3 tons, and a return recovery mission capacity of 12.5 tons.

The ZQ-3 rocket has a total length of 76.6 meters, a diameter of 4.5 meters, and a fairing diameter of 5.2 meters. Its launch weight is approximately 660 tons, with a launch thrust of around 900 tons. It is equipped with the TQ-12A engine, which uses a self-starting method and features thrust adjustment and high-precision control of the mixture ratio. Compared to the TQ-12, the thrust is increased by 9%, the specific impulse is improved by 40 m/s, and the weight is reduced by 100 kg.

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