LandSpace is Preparing for a Year of Major Launches
Nine launches are expected in 2025, including the first missions for Zhuque-3!
China National Radio (中央人民广播电台), henceforth referred to as CNR, shared a report on February 3rd discussing some of the coming highlights for China’s space sector this year. In the report, LandSpace was given considerable focus, which I will share here along with additional information.
CNR began by highlighting that LandSpace’s in-development partially reusable rocket, Zhuque-3 is focused on meeting the needs of China’s mega-constellation plans, with a carrying capacity of 21,300 kilograms when expended or 18,300 kilograms with a downrange first-stage landing. Additionally mentioning that the first-stage can be reused twenty times, something that LandSpace’s Chief Executive Officer Zhang Changwu (张昌武) has mentioned repeatedly.
He Bin (何宾), General Manager of LandSpace’s Public Relations Department, was interviewed by CNR for their report sharing:
“In this year and next year, Zhuque-2E and Zhuque-3 will be transferred from R&D mode to operation mode, and successively enter into the steady operation phase. In 2025, Zhuque-2E is expected to deliver six launches, which can provide 500 km sun-synchronous orbit capacity of 24 tons overall; Zhuque-3 will be launched in the third quarter of this year for the first time, and it is proposed to carry out three missions this year, which can provide a capacity of about 60 tons overall. At present, Zhuque-3 has begun to enter into the process related to the system tests of the vehicle.”
Launching nine times in 2025, six Zhuque-2E’s and three Zhuque-3’s, would be LandSpace’s busiest year on record, with the current record-holding year for the company being 2023 with two Zhuque-2 missions. So far hardware for two Zhuque-2E launches has been spotted heading for the Jiquan Satellite Launch Center from facilities in Zhejiang Province (浙江). Zhuque-2E may also see upgrades as its flight rate increases this year.
He Bin also added that LandSpace is committed to ensuring affordable launch costs for customers, with Zhang Changwu aiming to have launch costs of around 549 million Renminbi (75.7 million United States Dollars) within three years of Zhuque-3’s debut. It was also emphasized that through a 100-meter and 10,000-meter test last year solid foundations have been laid for Zhuque-3’s first flight and landing. Regarding first-stage landings, He Bin stated:
"The recovery of the first stage of the Zhuque-3 uses a land recovery solution, so we can see four landing legs at the base of the first stage of the Zhuque-3. At the same time, we can also see the grid fins used to control the aerodynamic deceleration as well as the control thrusters for the body of the first-stage. In addition to these obvious changes in appearance, in fact, during the entire flight process, we will also use the secondary ignition technology of the engine and some methods of joint guidance. These technologies and methods have actually been fully verified in the past 10,000-meter flight experiment."
If there are any problems with these translations please reach out and correct me.
Few details beyond an expected flight count were shared by CNR, but for Zhuque-3 one launch is expected to carry the Haolong (昊龙) spaceplane while another carries satellites for the GuoWang (郭望) constellation. It is unknown if either of these will be on the first flight in the third quarter (July to September) of the year.
With Zhuque-3’s first flight now in quarter three, the debut has been pushed out between one to three months from June. Progress for the first flight is well underway with the recent completion of ground-side infrastructure, delivery of needed engines to Jiuquan, as well as propellant tanks and various structures believed to be completed.
In support of the nine launches this year LandSpace is reported to have a strong stockpile of its Tianque (天鹊) engines, with eighty-three produced, and sixteen used, leaving at least sixty-seven engines for use around December 25th. Also in December LandSpace received 900 million Yuan (124.1 million United States Dollars) from China's National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund in support of Zhuque-3 production, development, and testing.
Based on a user manual, shared with me, for Zhuque-3, the vehicle may not fly in a configuration able to lift 21,300 kilograms. Instead, the first few vehicles may be limited to lifting no more than 11,800 kilograms when expended or 8,000 kilograms with a downrange landing. The first handful of vehicles may also be shorter, by around ten meters, and almost 100,000 kilograms lighter while using the less powerful TQ-12A engines for the first-stage and the TQ-15A engine for the second-stage. As such only downrange landings may be possible until the vehicle is upgraded in later missions.
If all goes as planned this year, in 2026 Zhuque-2E will perform another six missions while Zhuque-3 will aim for twelve launches, possibly for one flight a month. Eventually, LandSpace wants to perform one Zhuque-3 launch per week.
Update on February 7th 2025: Zhang Changwu confirmed to state media outlets that the company will be attempting to recover the first-stage boosters this year. Zhang's words were:
"These launches will deliver a combined payload capacity of around 60 tons, and we are targeting the successful recovery of the rocket's first stage within these three missions"