The rocket’s second stage engine has malfunctioned. A payload of 14 satellites was lost.
In China, the experimental launch of the commercial Zhuque-2 (ZQ-2) launch vehicle, as part of the first orbital launch of an oxygen-methane engine, ended in failure. This was announced by the private space company LandSpace on Thursday, December 15.
The launch of ZQ-2 was carried out on Wednesday at 16:30 Beijing time (10:30 Kyiv time) from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in northern China.
It is indicated that the rocket’s second stage engine has malfunctioned. Details of the breakdown are being investigated. A payload of 14 satellites was lost.
Zhuque-2 with a diameter of 3.35 m reaches 49.5 m in length and weighs 216 tons. It is capable of delivering a payload weighing 4 tons to sun-synchronous orbit and 6 tons to low earth orbit – at an altitude of about 500 and 200 km, respectively. In the future, LandSpace plans to build up to 15 of these rockets annually.
Landspace tried to get ahead of the American SpaceX and Relativity Space in the “space methane race”, which are also working on similar projects.
Methane as rocket fuel is more efficient than purified kerosene, easier to produce and more environmentally friendly. It has a higher specific thrust impulse, which means that a methane rocket can put the same or even greater load into orbit with less fuel consumption.
Earlier, the United States announced the loss of a Russian military satellite. The Angara-1.2 launch vehicle launched the Cosmos-2560 satellite into orbit on October 16.
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Source: korrespondent
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