Surge in static fires as Chinas space sector gains momentum

Date:
Thu, 09 Oct 2025 18:02:26 +0000

Description:
As Chinas launch cadence continues to accelerate, so too has the pace of engine testing The post Surge in static fires as Chinas space sector gains momentum appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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As Chinas launch cadence continues to accelerate, so too has the pace of engine testing in recent weeks. A growing number of commercial launch providers are edging closer to the maiden flights of new vehicles several of which are still on track to debut before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, taikonauts aboard the Tiangong space station have completed the fourth spacewalk of their crew rotation, as China prepares to launch its next three astronauts at the end of this month. The country also unveiled new images from its Tianwen-2 deep-space explorer and of other orbiting satellites.



The number of launches from China has been progressively increasing month on month since the summer. September closed with ten launches, the last of which was the countrys 60th of the year and the 100th mission for the Chang Zheng 2D. This vehicle has been in service since 1992 and has launched from all three of Chinas inland launch centers.

Septembers launches followed the balance of 60% state and 40% commercial launches predicted at the start of the year, but this may shift as new vehicles become operational before the year is out. Operations at Wenchang were paused at the start of October when Typhoon Matmo made landfall in South China. The typhoon bypassed the two launch sites in Hainan, though storm preparations delayed the planned launch of a Chang Zheng 8A until later in
the month. Despite recent weather, progress on the excavation works for commercial pads 3 and 4 at this site has been reported to be three weeks
ahead of schedule. Guowang satellite ahead of integration on the Satnet LEO Group 11 launch aboard a CZ-6A (Credit: China SatNet)

The month saw the 11th batch of Guowang internet communication satellites lofted aboard a Chang Zheng 6A, just 25 days since the vehicles previous mission for the megaconstellation. There are now 86 Guowang satellites in orbit. The constellation has caught up with its rival Qianfan, which has 90
in space though only 67 of these, roughly three-quarters of the total launched, are in operational orbits. See Also China Forum Section NSF Store Click here to Join L2

Another Chang Zheng 6A deployed the eighth satellite in the Fengyun-3 group
of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites, marking a record ten-day turnaround for the Site 9401 pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Meanwhile, the month saw two more launches of the Jielong 3 from an offshore launch platform in Chinese coastal waters near Rizhao. With a 16-day turnaround, these completed a set of three consecutive launches inside seven weeks for car maker Geelys constellation of Internet of Things (IoT) communications satellites.

Geely now has 64 spacecraft in orbit, the latest of which it says has completed the first phase. Two later phases will progressively increase the count to 6,012 in the future, enabling a worldwide offering that will include satellite internet and mobile phone connectivity, with centimeter-level precision. Geelys space division, Geespace has received a 2 billion Yuan ($281m) investment to build a new global headquarters as it builds out this worldwide satellite business. The launch of Yaogan 45 aboard a Chang Zheng 7A

Watching me, watching you

Two recent launches sent their payloads into unusual orbits. Yaogan 45 was launched by a Chang Zheng 7A at the start of September for the Chinese military, and circularized at an altitude of 7,500 km. This medium-Earth
orbit continually passes through the inner Van Allen belt and is unusually distant for a remote sensing satellite, although it offers a wide field of view of the Earth and, potentially, other satellites. This higher orbit could also indicate that the satellite will be used for a different type of
mission, such as signals intelligence (SIGINT).

Shiyan 29, also launched around the same time aboard a Chang Zheng 3C, has entered a near-geosynchronous orbit at around 35,800 km. In this supersynchronous path, its orbital period is just over one day, resulting in
a creep to the west of around five degrees per day. Described as a space environment detection satellite, the craft is currently well placed for the inspection of others in geostationary orbits as it circles the globe roughly every two months.

Images of satellites taken from other satellites are increasingly being released. Maxar recently shared photographs of Chinas Shijian-26 Earth-observation satellite taken by its WorldView Legion 2 spacecraft from a distance of 29 km. In response, Chang Guang Satellite Technology (CGST) subsequently shared its own imagery of Maxars satellite taken by its Jilin-1 at 55 km the first time CGST has publicly released images of another satellite in orbit. Images of ShiJian-26, WorldView Legion 2, and Tiangong space station taken by other satellites (Credit: Maxar Technologies, Chuang Guang Satellite, BlackSky/HEO)

Tianwen-2 looks back at Earth

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) released a new image at the start of October showing part of its Tianwen-2 craft, taken using its robotic arm. Previously, the agency had only released a view of one solar panel, but is expected to drip-feed imagery over the ten-year mission to maintain interest.

Tianwen-2 is currently almost halfway through its journey to near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamooalewa, at around 45 million km from its target. It is expected to arrive next summer.

The image, taken some months ago when the craft was starting out on its mission, shows the Earth still in view. It provides a first look at the craft and its capsule, which is planned to return samples from Kamooalewa around 2029, as Tianwen-2 performs a flyby on its way to study asteroid 311P/PanSTARRS in the second phase of its mission. Left: Earth seen in a Tianwen-2 selfie via its robotic arm, Right: Tianwen-2s Solar Panel (Credit: CNSA)

Shenzhou 20 spacewalk

The Shenzhou 20 crew is nearing the end of its rotation aboard the Tiangong space station. In late September, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie left the Wentian module to conduct a fourth Extravehicular Activity (EVA), equalling a record previously set by the Shenzhou-15 crew. As with their previous spacewalks,
the primary objective was to apply further debris protection to the station and to carry out external inspections.

Although upgraded Feitian spacesuits were delivered in July aboard the Tianzhou-9 resupply mission, older suits appear to have been used for this EVA. With only weeks to go before Shenzhou 20 returns to Earth, this is
likely to have been the current crews final spacewalk.

Shenzhou 21, Chinas tenth crewed mission to the Tiangong station, will most likely launch in the last week of October. The mission will relieve the Shenzhou 20 crew and begin a roughly six-month expedition. While the three-person crew was selected in February, the names of the taikonauts will not be revealed until a few days before liftoff, as is normal for Chinese crewed spaceflights. The trio will launch atop a Chang Zheng 2F (CZ-2F) from Site 901 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center a pad which has been largely dedicated to these Shenzhou missions, and launches of the Shenlong experimental spaceplane, aboard CZ-2 variants. Shenzhou 20 taikonaut Wang Jie during the crews fourth EVA (Credit: Xinhua/CMSA)

Static fire roundup

The past month has seen a notable increase in static fires of various kinds, as several of Chinas commercial launch providers gear up for maiden launches of new rockets some of which are expected to debut before the end of the year.

Landspace shared footage of its full-flow staged combustion cycle engine
known as the BF-20, or Blue Focus, which it test-fired in September. The company claims to have fired the engine up to thirty times so far, reaching a peak of about half its rated thrust. At full power, the engine is expected to generate 2.2 meganewtons (MN), or 220 tonnes, of thrust, which begins to approach the capability of SpaceXs Raptor 2. Like Raptor, BF-20 burns liquid methane and liquid oxygen.

The engine has been developed over the past three years and, while it could potentially be used on later missions of the forthcoming ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3) rocket, it is more likely to make its debut on the companys subsequent vehicle, which will reportedly have a 10-meter diameter. Landspace test fires its BF-20, or Blue Focus, full-flow staged combustion engine (Credit: CCTV)

The first stage of the ZQ-3 will, at least during early missions, be
propelled by nine Tianque-12 engines burning the same propellant combination. The vehicles maiden flight has been delayed following an anomaly on the third flight of a ZhuQue-2E (ZQ-2E) in August, since the two vehicles share the
same Tianque-15A engine on their upper stages. An electrical arc discharge
led to attitude instability and loss of gimbal control for the engine, resulting in the flight termination system being triggered, with the loss of four prototype Guowang satellites on board. The failure disrupted plans to launch the ZQ-2E up to six times this year and has delayed the introduction
of the ZQ-3. The first ZQ-3 launch could now potentially happen in November.

The BF-20 is not the only full-flow staged combustion engine in development
in China. The Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology is currently testing its YF-215, which is targeting a similar level of thrust: around 2
MN, or 200 tonnes. Thirty of these engines will power the first stage of the planned Chang Zheng 9 Chinas answer to Starship.

Space Pioneer has also been reported to be developing a full-flow engine, although details of this project are currently scarce. Notably, the company
is planning a new test stand in Gongyi, which will be capable of handling engines producing up to 2.9 MN (300 tonnes) of thrust. The company has
delayed the debut of its Tianlong-3 rocket until November, and performed additional static fire tests of the first stage this month using its HOS-1 floating platform near Haiyang. Space Pioneer prepares to conduct a static fire from its floating HOS-1 platform (Credit: Space Pioneer)

iSpace has raised new funding, which will support the development of new production facilities as well as the ongoing development of its methane-powered Shuang Quxian3 (Hyperbola-3) and its nine Focus-1 engines. Last month, the company successfully verified the structural integrity of its first-stage methane transmission pipeline, subjecting it to the cryogenic temperatures, pressure, and vibration conditions it would encounter during flight.

Moving to engines which burn liquid kerosene and oxygen, often abbreviated to kerolox, Galactic Energy also completed a nearly four-minute static fire test of its Cangqiong-50 (CQ-50) engine. The firing successfully tested the entire flight profile of the second stage of its forthcoming Zhishenxing-1 (or Pallas-1) rocket. The engines name poetically translates to blue dome of heaven.

The first flight-ready vehicle is expected to arrive at Jiuquan in November, with its launch expected before the end of the year, while the companys larger, solid-propellant-powered Gushenxing-2 (or Ceres-2) is also making swift progress towards its own debut. Static fire of the Cangqiong-50 engine on the Pallas-1 second stage (Credit: Galactic Energy)

Deep Blue Aerospace test-fired its Leiting-RS (Thunder-RS) engine, generating 1.3 MN (130 tonnes) of thrust. The company also tested the vacuum variant of its smaller Leiting-R engine at the end of September for 308 seconds, confirming readiness for flight operations.

These open-cycle engines employ pintle injection technology similar to
SpaceXs Merlin for efficient combustion and a throttling range of 50% to
110%. The two engines will power the companys Xingyun-1 and Xingyun-2 (Nebula-1 and 2) vehicles, respectively. One year ago, three Leiting-R
engines powered the Nebula test vehicle as it performed a near-perfect 5-kilometer hop test near the Jiuquan site, with a software failure causing a hard landing. A second, unsuccessful, test earlier this summer crashed less than a kilometer away from the launch pad. This has delayed the vehicles debut, which is now anticipated next year.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) recently completed a second static fire of the Chang Zheng 10 test article in Wenchang. This included reigniting the first stages seven YF-100K, a step which will be necessary to enable recovering the first stage on future missions. This was the first time a
Chang Zheng vehicle has conducted a tethered ignition test at a launch site, rather than on a test stand. Using the launch pad and its flame trench for this test was necessary as China doesnt currently have a test site that can accommodate a firing of all seven engines together. Second static fire test
of the Chang Zheng 10 is conducted on the pad at the Wenchang Space Launch Site (Credit: CGTN)

The three-stage Chang Zheng 10 will be used to launch missions that will
carry taikonauts to the lunar surface, which China plans to achieve before 2030. The rocket will separately loft both the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft, which recently completed its pad abort tests, and the Lanyue lunar lander. According to the chief commander of the Chang Zheng rocket series, the next significant steps for the rocket will be a low-altitude flight and recovery test, before the CZ-10 makes its first orbital flight test.

CAS Space has also completed testing of its own upper-stage vacuum engine for the forthcoming Lijian-2 (or Kinetica-2) vehicle. The Liqing-4 (Kinecore-4)
is a 20 kilonewton (kN) engine, which is capable of supporting missions to geostationary transfer orbits and beyond into deep space. These validations were conducted at the companys dedicated test facility in Conghua in southern China. This follows on from Julys successful static fire of the sea-level YF-102 engines, nine of which will power the vehicles first stage. CAS Space has also been testing its 3D-printed Liqung-1, a 294-kilonewton engine that will support the companys entry into space tourism with the planned Lihong-2.

The Lijian-2 is a little smaller in height and diameter than a Falcon 9 at 53 meters tall, with roughly half the payload capacity to orbit, depending on
its configuration. Initial flights will be expendable, with plans to
introduce a reusable variant by 2028. Lijian-2 is close to making its maiden flight, which had previously been expected to take place in September. CAS Space concludes a test of its Kinecore-4 engine for the Kinetica-2s upper stage (Credit: CAS Space)

Lijian-2s first flight will carry a prototype of the Qingzhou , or Light
Ship, cargo transporter. This low-cost expendable spacecraft is the first of two new vehicle designs that will service the Tiangong space station under a pair of commercial resupply contracts awarded by CNSA last October. CAS Space recently announced the successful completion of static modal and separation tests between the spacecraft and its payload adapter, along with all mission compatibility checks. The company added that the inaugural launch is expected in the next couple of months.

Finally, Orienspace has begun testing of its Yuanli-110 engine, nine of which will now power the first stage of its forthcoming Yinli-2 (or Gravity-2) rocket, superseding the less powerful Yuanli-85. This was a successful first test of the combustion chamber, proving control over throttling, startup, and shutdown. Yinli-2 is similar in length to a Falcon 9, measuring 70 m,
although it is slightly wider at 4.2 m in diameter. It is expected to fly
next year.

(Lead image: Space Pioneer conducts a static fire from its floating HOS-1 platform Credit: Space Pioneer)



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