China · 2015–
LandSpace
Private launch company based in Beijing, creator of the methane-fuelled Zhuque rocket family; the first Chinese company to land an orbital-class booster.
Catalog — Rockets
- 2026
Zhuque-2E Block 2
The Zhuque-2E Block 2 is the latest configuration of the Zhuque-2, the medium-class orbital launch vehicle built by the Chinese company LandSpace and the first methane-fuelled rocket to reach orbit. Like the rest of the family it is a two-stage vehicle burning liquid oxygen and liquid methane (methalox), 3.35 m in diameter, flying from Site 96 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. What sets Block 2 apart from the original Zhuque-2E (retroactively "block 1") is a package of improvements intended to let the rocket finally reach its full designed capability: lengthened first-stage tanks, full subcooled propellant loading, a three-ignition second stage that allows orbital disposal of the stage, and an accelerated launch campaign and launch cycle. The result is a distinctly larger and more powerful vehicle: 55.9 m tall against the 47.8 m of block 1, a lift-off mass of 267,000 kg instead of 220,000 kg, and first-stage thrust rising from 2880 kN to 3312 kN. With those changes the Zhuque-2E advertises 6000 kg to low Earth orbit and 4000 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit. The first stage retains four TQ-12A engines and the second stage a single TQ-15A. Block 2 debuted on 14 May 2026 with the Y5 flight, which inserted a 2,800-kilogram customised payload described as a "large-scale constellation deployment experiment" into a 900-kilometer polar orbit, a demonstration aimed at winning contracts from China's megaconstellation projects.
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Zhuque-3 Sheet pending