HELSINKI — China’s state-owned and commercial rocket makers have plans for yet more new launch vehicles, despite an already competitive field and imminent test flights.
Over the last decade, China has introduced its first cryogenic rockets and is now building on and expanding its capabilities to enable major projects including a crewed lunar landing before the end of the decade. It has meanwhile also opened up the sector to private capital, leading to a proliferation of companies and in-development launch vehicles, many aiming for attaining reusability.
While test flights of the national Long March 10 series, developed by the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and commercial rockets such as the Zhuque-3 (Landspace), Tianlong-3 (Space Pioneer), Pallas-1 (Galactic Energy), and Gravity-2 (Orienspace) and Hyperbola-3 (iSpace) are getting closer, more ambitious plans and even new companies are still emerging.
China Rocket, nominally a commercial spin-off from CASC, announced Aug. 21 that a 5.0-meter-diameter rocket named the Long March 10B had been approved for development on July 3. The announcement via its WeChat social media channel was later deleted. The 10B appears to be a variant of the Long March 10A, itself a single-stick low Earth orbit (LEO) variant of the tri-core Long 10 for crewed moon launches. It would be modified for non-crew payloads, and set up for faster, modularized production. With its first stage recovered, it would be capable of carrying 16,000 kilograms to a 200-kilometer LEO.
CASC recently conducted the first static fire of a seven-engine, shortened first-stage test article for the Long March 10, marking an important step in development of the rocket.
The move to build on and this progress would follow how tech from the Long March 7, developed for space station cargo launches, was utilized to make the Long March 8 series; production of which is being accelerated to assist China’s megaconstellation plans. China Rocket operates as a commercial offshoot of CASC’s China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) as part of China’s broader move to stimulate commercial space capabilities.
New commercial plans
In the commercial sector, a number of companies are racing to get launchers to the pad and compete for contracts to launch batches of satellites for the Guowang and Qianfan/Thousand Sails broadband megaconstellations.
One, Galactic Energy, plans to debut its kerosene-liquid oxygen Pallas-1 rocket (8,000 kg to a 200-km LEO) in the coming months. But the company has also set a target date of late 2026 for the launch of the larger Pallas-2, it announced Aug. 18. That rocket would have a payload capacity ranging from 20,000 to 58,000 kg, depending on its configuration (single stick or tri-core). The company recently made progress on the rocket’s CQ-90 100-ton-thrust kerosene engine with a gas generator test run. The CQ-90 will be 90 percent 3D-printed in terms of its weight.
Galactic Energy also plans to launch its first Ceres-2 rocket—an upgraded variant of the Ceres-1 solid rocket—in the near future.
New entrants still emerging
Despite a crowded field of launch hopefuls, new entrants continue to emerge. New Beijing-based company Arktech announced Aug. 21 that it had secured tens of millions of yuan (10 million yuan = $1.4 million) for development of its Bingchuan-1 (Glacier-1) rocket, powered by a full-flow regenerative combustion cycle (FFSC), 200-ton-thrust engine named Mammoth-1. The 5.0-m-diameter rocket is to be capable of sending 40,000 kg to LEO.
The company announcement stated that many of its core founding members graduated from Tsinghua University, with a research and development and manufacturing testing team of over 60 people, with an average of more than 10 years of experience in aerospace research and development and engineering.
That development followed a week after a report Aug. 15 that Welight, established in March 2025, had secured tens of millions of yuan for its own FFSC-engine-powered Weiguang-1 launcher.
Earlier in the year, Nayuta Space secured funding of the same nominative level as it pursues its goal of developing a fully-reusable launcher. Another new Chinese launch company, Cosmoleap, is planning chopstick recoveries for its Leap rocket.
China is yet to attempt to land, recover and reuse an orbital rocket, though first attempts may be close. One player, iSpace, recently unveiled the country’s first drone rocket recovery ship for its plans. A breakthrough by either state-owned entities or commercial outfits could provide a boost to launch capabilities and cadence, with pressure on the country to up its launch rate to enable it to hit constellation construction goals.
New entrants are still emerging in China, despite big leads for more established players. This is due to strong policy support from the central government and provincial and local governments offering backing, looking to foster space clusters and high-tech growth, and demand for launch from megaconstellation projects. The newer companies also appear to be reacting to new trends and breakthroughs in the launch sector, such as those made by SpaceX, reflected in plans for chopstick-style recoveries and FFSC engines.
The developments follow a commercial launcher boom in the U.S., but in China’s case with state backing and clear megaconstellation demand. Which of China’s hopefuls will survive or even make it to the pad remains to be seen.