{"id":80452,"date":"2025-08-20T15:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80452\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:34:07","slug":"did-zhuque-2e-launch-failure-deal-a-blow-to-chinas-guo-wang-satellite-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/80452\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Zhuque-2E launch failure deal a blow to China\u2019s Guo Wang satellite project?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China\u2019s push to build broadband mega constellations could face further delays after one of the country\u2019s leading privately developed rockets failed after take-off last week from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert.<\/p>\n<p>The Zhuque-2E \u2013 an upgraded version of <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3227378\/china-beats-spacex-worlds-first-methane-powered-rocket-launch?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the LandSpace rocket<\/a> that saw the company beat SpaceX in the race to send the world\u2019s first methane-fuelled projectile into orbit \u2013 experienced a flight anomaly after lift-off on Friday morning, the company said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">LandSpace apologised to its unnamed clients and pledged to conduct a transparent investigation into the failure of the rocket, which successfully placed two satellites on its maiden flight in November.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to a Beijing-based space engineer who asked not to be named because of the issue\u2019s sensitivity, the lost payload is widely believed to consist of four experimental satellites for Guo Wang, China\u2019s state-backed network that aims to rival SpaceX\u2019s Starlink.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The setback came a day after LandSpace \u2013 whose only active rocket is the Zhuque-2E \u2013 was named preferred bidder to launch orbiters for the Qianfan constellation, a Shanghai-backed initiative comparable in scale to Guo Wang\u2019s planned nearly 13,000 satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Both Guo Wang and Qianfan <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3320866\/china-rocket-shortage-means-it-may-have-pick-favoured-candidate-take-starlink?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">have stepped up launch efforts<\/a> to meet their near-term deployment goals, but it is likely the Zhuque-2E failure may hit the Shanghai project harder, especially since it has not launched a single satellite since March.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Guo Wang, which aims to have 400 satellites in orbit by 2027, has so far launched 72, while Qianfan\u2019s planned deployment of 648 by the end of this year remains stalled at 90.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s push to build broadband mega constellations could face further delays after one of the country\u2019s leading privately&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5713,41006,891,41004,41002,41005,26713,41003,26714,11139,11132,90,5752,416,28108,412,9676,56,54,55,26712],"class_list":{"0":"post-80452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-cas-space","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-galactic-energy","12":"tag-gobi-desert","13":"tag-gongyi","14":"tag-guo-wang","15":"tag-jiuquan-satellite-launch-centre","16":"tag-landspace","17":"tag-long-march","18":"tag-qianfan","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-shanghai","21":"tag-space","22":"tag-space-pioneer","23":"tag-spacex","24":"tag-starlink","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-unitedkingdom","28":"tag-zhuque-2e"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}