How many Tianlong-3 launches are left in 2024? [Space Pioneer Update]
This post was originally posted on June 12th 2024 on Ko-fi.
Space Pioneer has finally shipped the first Tianlong-3 first-stage to its test-firing facility in Gongyi (巩义市) on the 11th of June. Unlike Falcon 9, Space Pioneer has opted to ship the first-stage on two trucks, one with the rocket-grade kerosene propellant tank and the other with the liquid oxygen propellant tank and nine engines.
The trip from the companies Zhangjiagang (张家港市) Intelligent Manufacturing Base, located in the Jiangyin-Zhangjiagang-Jingjiang metropolitan area, to the Gongyi (巩义市) test facility, in Henan (河南) Province, is an almost 900-kilometer journey by road and will take two days if no driver change takes place.
A test firing is expected to take place by the end of the month at Gongyi, Space Pioneer has not yet said how long the firing will be but all nine engines will be used. Individual tests of nine engines for a flight-like duration also happened earlier this year. (Video of test attached is sped up, unaltered from the source back in March).
Depending on the results of this firing one of three things will happen. If successful, the first-stage will be placed back onto their trucks and begin the almost 2000-kilometer journey to the Wenchang Space Launch Site. The second possibility is, if a small problem was found the first-stage will remain at Gongyi to complete further testing. Finally, if a more widespread or complex problem is found the first-stage will be shipped back to the Zhangjiagang Intelligent Manufacturing Base.
Ahead of the first Tianlong-3 first-stage making its trip, Space Pioneer announced that it had completed its C+ funding round on June 6th. This funding round raised 1.5 billion Yuan Renminbi, approximately 207 million United States Dollars. The contributors to the C+ funding round were: Liangxi Science and Technology Innovation Industry Fund of Funds (Bohua Capital Management), Wuxi Industrial Development, CCTV Fund, Guoyu Gaohua, Deyue Investment, and Qianzhan Investment, CITIC Construction Investment, Cointreau Investment, Hongfu Assets, Hefei Ruicheng, Suzhou Asset Management, First Development Venture Capital, SDIC Taikang, Binghong Capital, Zhongcai Tenghuam, and other small contributors and individuals. With the C+ Funding round, Space Pioneer has completed fifteen funding rounds, raising 4 billion Yuan Renminbi, approximately 552 million United States Dollars, to date.
This extra funding ahead of the first flight of Tianlong-3 will likely be used to increase the production capacity for components, engines, and propellant tanks of Tianlong-3.
If Space Pioneer had not postponed the July launch target they would have just barely been on schedule for the first flight. However, this flight has been delayed to September of this year. September was originally scheduled to have the second flight of Tianlong-3. A third flight was also planned for November, with this one being the first from Jiuquan.
Progress on the launch pad at Jiuquan is closely guarded at Space Pioneer, continous construction has been spotted from orbit however. The status of the flight two and three vehicles is largely unknown, as Space Pioneer is very selective with what they show from their facilities.
Tianlong-3's first flight September target has likely pushed the second Wenchang launch into 2025, unless the opt to delay the Jiuquan launch instead. Tianlong-3 plans to launch from Hainan Commerical Launch Pad 2, at Wenchang, until it has its own dedicated launch pad, if Space Pioneer still plans to go ahead with a November launch it will conflict with the first-flight of Galactic Energy's Pallas-1, Pad 2 can only support a launch every ~twenty-three days currently for sixteen a year. The turnaround time of Pad 2 is also why the first flight is delayed to September, as the Long March 12 is slated to fly from it in August.
It is not unlikely that Space Pioneer wants the first two flights to occur from Wenchang for two reasons. The first is that if something goes wrong after liftoff, it will end up safely in the ocean. The second is to provide a very similar pre-launch environment so that they can better understand pre-launch data and fueling.
With those things considered it's not entirely unlikely that Tianlong-3 will only fly once this year, with a second flight taking place dependent on the Jiuqan launch pad or Pallas-1 delaying into December or 2025. Rocket reuse hardware is also still yet to be installed on any Tianlong-3 vehicles we know about, currently Tianlong-3 Y1, so a landing attempt may occur next year instead now, however Space Pioneer could try on their first flight.