{"id":155966,"date":"2025-11-27T07:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/155966\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T07:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T07:26:09","slug":"china-has-3-reusable-rockets-lined-up-for-launch-as-they-vie-to-make-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/155966\/","title":{"rendered":"China has 3 reusable rockets lined up for launch as they vie to make history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The race to launch China\u2019s first reusable rocket is heating up, with three contenders now lined up at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the country\u2019s northwest for flights that could make history.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Both the Long March 12A and Zhuque-3 are aiming for December lift-offs that will try to reach orbit and bring their first stages back to Earth about 400km downrange. Tianlong-3 is also designed for reuse, but is not expected to attempt a landing on its debut flight.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Long March 12A is aiming for a December launch. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/63d357c3-fe32-4e18-9d91-173956b4a73c_009b31b9.jpg\" title=\"The Long March 12A is aiming for a December launch. Photo: Handout\"\/>The Long March 12A is aiming for a December launch. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A Beijing-based rocket engineer familiar with the matter said the Long March 12A\u2019s technical readiness was \u201con par\u201d with Zhuque-3\u2019s. But he said there had been \u201cinternal considerations\u201d about which rocket should get the historic first attempt.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cPulling off China\u2019s first rocket landing would be huge,\u201d the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. \u201cState-owned contractors may try to leverage their influence to go first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In October, LandSpace announced that Zhuque-3 had completed fuelling rehearsals and a full-duration engine firing at Jiuquan. Its launch was later delayed after the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3333672\/chinas-shenzhou-20-debris-crisis-catalyst-space-war-or-peace?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tiangong space station\u2019s debris incident<\/a> in early November, and moved to the final weekend of the month.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cBut it has been postponed again,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, photos shared by <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/space?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">space<\/a> enthusiasts on social media show the Long March 12A being rolled out and raised on the pad, apparently in preparation for a major engine test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The race to launch China\u2019s first reusable rocket is heating up, with three contenders now lined up at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4177,12870,103331,516,13190,1496,91736,1498,103329,27394,111,139,69,147,103330,392,27396,1503,5147,27399],"class_list":{"0":"post-155966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-blue-origin","10":"tag-china-aerospace-science-and-technology-corporation","11":"tag-elon-musk","12":"tag-falcon-9","13":"tag-guowang","14":"tag-jiuquan-satellite-launch-centre","15":"tag-landspace","16":"tag-lanyan-20","17":"tag-long-march-12a","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-shanghai-academy-of-spaceflight-technology","23":"tag-space","24":"tag-space-pioneer","25":"tag-spacex","26":"tag-starship","27":"tag-zhuque-3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}