For the second time this month, a Chinese rocket designed for reuse successfully reached low-Earth orbit on its maiden flight on Monday, defying thorny hurdles that burden the introduction of new launch vehicles.
The first Long March 12A rocket, which is about the same height and diameter as SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 9:00 p.m. EST Monday (02:00 UTC Tuesday).
Less than 10 minutes later, the rocket’s methane-fueled first stage booster entered the atmosphere at supersonic speed, and impacted in a remote area about 200 miles from the Jiuquan space port in northwestern China. The booster failed to complete the braking burn to land in a prepared location near the edge of the Gobi Desert.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned enterprise that leads the country’s space industry, said the Long March 12A upper stage performed as intended and successfully reached the mission’s “predetermined orbit.”
“The first stage failed to recover successfully,” the corporation said in a statement. “The specific causes are still under further analysis and investigation.”
A stable of reusable rockets
This result resembles the results of the first flight of another medium-range Chinese rocket, the Zhuke-3, on December 2. The Zhuke-3 rocket was developed by a privately funded startup called Landspace. Similar in size and performance to the Long March 12A, the Zhuk-3 also reached orbit on its first launch, and its recoverable booster stage crashed during a downrange landing attempt. The Zhuke-3’s first stage landed next to its landing zone, while the Long March 12A appears to have missed it by at least a few miles.
CASC said, “Although this mission did not achieve the planned recovery of the rocket’s first stage, it did obtain important engineering data under the rocket’s actual flight conditions, laying an important foundation for subsequent launches and reliable recovery of stages.” “The research and development team will immediately conduct a comprehensive review and technical analysis of this test process, thoroughly investigate the cause of the failure, continuously optimize the recovery plan, and continue to advance reusability technology verification.”
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