China's Space Pioneer sets new rocket thrust record

Space Pioneer, a Beijing-based private company, said it conducted a major test of its new carrier rocket type TL 3, setting a domestic record for the biggest engine thrust of any Chinese private rocket.

During the first-stage ignition test at an offshore platform off Haiyang in Shandong province, nine TH-12 liquid oxygen-kerosene engines burned for 30 seconds, generating a combined thrust of about 840 metric tons.

The test was designed to verify the overall design and subsystem compatibility of the TL 3's first core stage. The result set a new record for engine thrust by a privately developed rocket in China, according to Space Pioneer.

The company also noted the event marked the first sea-based engine ignition test in the country.

Before the test, the record was held by LandSpace, another Beijing-headquartered private enterprise. Its nine TQ-12A liquid oxygen-methane engines produced a total thrust of 769 tons in an ignition test in June at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia.

According to its designers, the TL 3 will be 72 meters tall with a diameter of 3.8 meters. With a liftoff weight of nearly 600 tons and a thrust of 840 tons, the rocket will be able to send satellites with a combined weight of 17 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit at 500 kilometers or spacecraft weighing 22 tons to a low-Earth orbit.

Designers said the rocket will match SpaceX's Falcon 9 in overall carrying capacity and be able to deploy as many as 36 satellites in a single flight.

As a leader in China's private space sector, Space Pioneer became the first private company in the country to reach orbit with a liquid-fuel rocket when its TL 2 launched in April 2023 at the Jiuquan center.

That mission marked the first time any privately developed, liquid-propellant rocket in the world succeeded on its first orbital attempt, which refers to a powered flight that places a craft in orbit. Before the TL 2, all liquid-propellant rockets developed by private companies, including SpaceX and Virgin Orbit in the United States and LandSpace in China, failed on their first attempts.