Three Chinese contenders are in final sprint to match SpaceX’s Falcon 9 orbital achievement by the end of this year
The 35-second burn involved nine Tianhuo-12 engines firing together to produce nearly 1,000 tonnes of thrust in “the most complex and challenging ground trial in rocket development”, according to the company.
Now that Tianlong-3 had passed its “major exam”, it was entering the final sprint towards launch, Space Pioneer said on social media.
“We aim to fly by the end of this year. After that, we plan to quickly move into routine commercial operations, with a target of more than 30 missions annually.”
Along with the government-backed Long March-12A, Zhuque-3 and Tianlong-3 are contenders to be the next reusable rocket into orbit, a decade after the benchmark set by SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
