Chinese private launch firm Landspace successfully placed six satellites into orbit on May 17, marking the fifth flight of its methane-fueled Zhuque-2 rocket and continuing a sharp uptick in China's orbital activity this year.
The Zhuque-2E lifted off at 12:12 a.m. Eastern (0412 UTC) from a dedicated commercial pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The rocket carried six Tianyi satellites for commercial manufacturer Spacety, designed for a range of remote sensing and scientific purposes, including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), optical imagery, and space environment research.
Among the payloads were Tianyi-42 for C-band SAR imaging, Tianyi-29 and 35 for optical remote sensing, and Tianyi-34, 45, and 46 for space science missions. Tianyi-45 is part of the university-led Tiansuan constellation and uses argon ion thrusters for end-of-life deorbiting, while Tianyi-34 carries instruments to study gamma-ray bursts, X-ray polarization, and auroras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWREP0gzTyQ
The launch marked the second flight of the enhanced Zhuque-2E variant, following its debut in November 2024. The rocket, now equipped with an upgraded 4.2-meter-wide composite payload fairing, features improved Tianque-12A engines on the first stage and a Tianque-15A engine with an extended niobium-tungsten alloy nozzle on the second. Landspace also implemented real-time wind correction trajectory technology, claimed as a domestic first.
The 47.3-meter-long, 3.35-meter-diameter rocket is capable of delivering up to 4,000 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. Since its maiden flight in December 2022—an unsuccessful attempt—Zhuque-2 has made four successful launches, including its historic second flight in July 2023, the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit globally.
Landspace is concurrently developing the much larger Zhuque-3 methalox launcher, a two-stage rocket made from stainless steel. Designed to deliver up to 21,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit in an expendable configuration, Zhuque-3 stands 76.6 meters tall with a 4.5-meter core diameter. The company completed system integration testing in April and is preparing for static fire tests as early as June.
Footage from Saturday's launch showed construction and support infrastructure for the Zhuque-3 at the Dongfeng site, including a visible flame stack used for fuel venting.
This mission was China's 27th orbital launch of 2025 and part of a recent surge in activity that includes missions from both state and private actors. It follows recent launches of TJS-19 via Long March 3C, Yaogan-40 (02) aboard a Long March 6A, and 12 on-orbit computing satellites on a Long March 2D.
Further missions are scheduled in rapid succession: a Ceres-1 sea launch on May 19, a Long March 7A from Wenchang on May 20, a Kinetica-1 from Jiuquan on May 21, and the Tianwen-2 asteroid and comet sample return mission between May 28 and 30.