LandSpace has made the first ever successful launch of a methane rocket, leaving SpaceX behind

While SpaceX and Relativity Space are looking into the problems that caused their methane-powered rockets (Starship and Terran 1, respectively) to fail, Chinese company LandSpace has won the race.

Here's What We Know

The Zhuque-2 is a two-stage rocket with a height of 49.5 metres and a diameter of 3.35 metres. It is designed to launch up to 6 tonnes of cargo into low Earth orbit and up to 4 tonnes into sun-synchronous orbit.

The successful mission made Zhuque-2 the first rocket to be powered by methane and liquid oxygen. It launched from a spaceport in the Gobi Desert and successfully delivered cargo to a sun-synchronous orbit.

The first stage is equipped with a Tianque-12 liquid methane engine. Its development began in July 2019 and took four years. The propulsion system provides a thrust of 268 tonnes. The second stage of the Zhuque-2 rocket is equipped with a Tianque-11 engine to adjust the speed and direction of flight.

Source: scmp