The first Long March 12B on the pad at Jiuquan's Dongfeng innovation zone with a sunset backdrop. Credit: CASC
HELSINKI — A state-funded tender for tank tooling, a delivered stainless steel forging and launch pad planning suggest that China is developing 7-meter-diameter reusable rockets.
China has been working on a range of state and commercially developed reusable launch vehicles in recent years, ranging from 3.8 meters, such as the already-flying Long March 12A and 12B, up to 10.6 meters for the more distant national Long March 9 program, expected to debut in the 2030s, with the efforts aimed at boosting launch cadence and payload capacity and enabling megaconstellation deployment and large space infrastructure projects.
China’s main space contractor now appears to be working on a new, powerful intermediate rocket with a diameter in the 7.0-meter range, according to recent developments. The nearest comparison would be to Blue Origin’s operational New Glenn 7-meter-diameter, partially reusable, two-stage methalox rocket.
A tender appeared on the electronic procurement platform of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) for a single 7-meter-class tank-dome welding system. This followed Shanghai-listed forging firm Wuxi Parker New Materials announcing June 4 that its subsidiary Paixin Aviation had passed acceptance and shipped a “7.5-meter-class ultra-large-diameter high-strength ring for aerospace use” made of S-03L martensitic stainless steel for an unnamed “important model.” An acceptance panel was formed from CASC’s China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) and the Central Iron and Steel Research Institute (CISRI).
