Long March 12 version
Long March 12 CZ-12A
The Long March 12A is the reusable variant of the Long March 12: it keeps the CZ-12's 3.8 m diameter but swaps kerosene for methane and liquid oxygen and fits seven Longyun-70 engines on a first stage designed to be recovered by propulsive landing. It is about 69 m tall, lifts off at 437,000 kg with 5,215 kN of thrust, and its low Earth orbit capacity runs from 9,000 kg expendable to no less than 6,000 kg when the stage returns. It first flew on 23 December 2025.
- December 23, 2025
- First launch
- 9,000 kg
- LEO capacity
- 5,215 kN
- Thrust
- Yes
- Reusable
History
From project XLV21 to a rocket
The programme that led to the CZ-12A began in 2021 under the codename "XLV21". Reusability was among its goals from the start, although the initial design was more ambitious than the rocket eventually built: the original project targets will rather be met by the larger-diameter CZ-12B. It is manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).
The first stage keeps the 2219 aluminium alloy hull inherited from the CZ-12 but drops its kerosene engines: it carries seven Longyun-70 units, a reusable methane engine developed by the private firm Jiuzhou Yunjian, at some 745 kN each. It has four T-tail fins and four aluminium landing legs about 5.7 m long. The second stage uses a single YF-209V, also methane-fuelled and reusable, on a 2195 alloy hull. Two fairings are available, 4.2 and 5.2 m in diameter.
The landing tests
On 23 June 2024 SAST ran the first vertical take-off and landing test article for the CZ-12A at Jiuquan: three engines, the centre one lit throughout, landing legs deployed, and about five minutes of flight reaching some 10 km. On 19 January 2025 it launched a test stage to 75 km to simulate the full ascent and recovery profile; the outcome was not made public.
The first flight
The maiden flight lifted off at 02:00 UTC on 23 December 2025 from a dedicated pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket reached orbit with what appeared to be a mass simulator, but the first-stage landing attempt failed. Planned improvements include raising each Longyun engine to about 85 tonnes of thrust and adding two more engines to the first stage, for nine in total, which would increase overall liftoff thrust by around 45 per cent.