LandSpace Technology Corporation, a private Chinese company (as far as a company can be truly private in China) on the brink of bankruptcy, has achieved a global success: it launched the first methane rocket into orbit, winning an unofficial race with the giants of the US aerospace industry.

The launch took place on Wednesday, July 12, from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome at 04:00 Romanian time, and was the second flight of the Zueque-2 rocket after the failure of the first flight on December 14, 2022. as the name suggests, this is LandSpace’s second rocket: the Zhuque-1 (or LandSpace-1) was a solid-propellant rocket, probably a derivative of the DF-26 ballistic missile (so I doubt LandSpace is really a private company). Zhuque-1 had only one flight, on October 27, 2018, which unfortunately failed.

But Zhuque-2 would be a completely different vehicle: more powerful than its predecessor, with a first stage equipped with 4 TQ-12 engines developed by LandSpace itself, burning methane and liquid oxygen for propulsion. The vast majority of rockets use kerosene (along with liquid oxygen) for their first stage engines, but recently more and more companies are favoring methane. There are several reasons why this happens: methane is slightly more efficient than kerosene and at the same time cheaper.

Methane burns much “cleaner” than kerosene, and this is an extremely important factor if the vehicle is to be reusable: methane’s molecular structure is simpler, with only one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, as opposed to the long chains of carbon atoms in kerosene.

Elon Musk hopes that one day his ships will reach Mars and produce there the methane needed to return to Earth. Given the composition of the Martian atmosphere, this will someday be possible, unlike producing kerosene in situ on Mars (where we have no oil reserves, as far as we know!).

But methane also has some disadvantages that have not made it a very popular fuel so far. One of them is that it has a higher density than

kerosene, so a first stage with a larger volume is needed. Then there is the fuel, which requires additional cooling, making it more difficult

transportation and refueling of the rocket. And it is difficult to provide thermal insulation of oxygen, for methane it would also be too much trouble

contribute to start-up costs.

Last but not least, it is also the inertia of the industry: the entire infrastructure is designed for kerosene rockets (launch pads, test stands, etc.), and developing a completely new engine using a different fuel is a process that takes years and consumes hundreds of millions of dollars, therefore, no one can attempt such a thing.

Geopolitical changes forced the US to abandon dependence on Russian rocket engines and develop American engines. It was a good time to invest in new ideas because there were resources to support such activities. Blue Origin began work on the BE-4 (which will be used by both United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket), while SpaceX began thinking about the future of its Raptor vehicle and engines.

But none of these vehicles are ready for launch: Starship had a failed first flight that still wouldn’t have reached orbit, and Vulcan has problems with both its Centaur secondary stage and its BE-4 engine, which exploded in late June. on the test ramp.

It remains to be seen whether the Zhuque-2 rocket will continue to fly in the future and whether it will find customers (after two-thirds of its vehicle flights failed). She didn’t do it

this time it didn’t put a satellite into orbit (just a demo ballast) and doesn’t have reusables, making this victory just one achievement. She’s also rumored to be in financial trouble, and it’s not yet clear whether this week’s success can save the company.

Unfortunately, Europe doesn’t care about methane rocket engines, at least for now: the future Ariane vehicle will run on hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

(Hydrogen is theoretically the best fuel for rocket engines, but comes with certain costs that don’t necessarily make it the best), and Vega-C has solid propellant engines.

However, to end on an optimistic note, the good news is that this June saw the latest test of a European methane engine called Prometheus, but it is in the early stages of development and we don’t know when it will fly into space. or what the missile will be that will use it.

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