Zhuque-3 (Reusable Medium Launch Vehicle)
LandSpace
LandSpace's fully reusable medium launch vehicle under development, targeting 21,000 kg to LEO using its Tianque-12 LOX/methane engine.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Payload capacity
- 21,000 kg
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Propellants
- LOX/Liquid Methane (LCH4)
- First Stage Engines
- 9× Tianque-12 (~1,000 kN each)
- Payload to LEO
- ~21,000 kg (reusable configuration)
- Reuse Method
- Propulsive landing (both stages)
- Predecessor
- Zhuque-2 — world's first methane rocket to orbit (July 2023)
- Company
- LandSpace (蓝箭航天), founded 2015, Beijing, China
- Status
- Development
About
Zhuque-3 (朱雀三号) is LandSpace’s next-generation fully reusable launch vehicle, currently in development after the company’s historic success with Zhuque-2 (朱雀二号) — the world’s first methane-fueled rocket to successfully reach orbit (July 2023). LandSpace leveraged its Tianque engine family across both vehicles.
Zhuque-3 is a two-stage vehicle with both stages designed for propulsive reusability, similar to SpaceX Falcon 9 but using LOX/liquid methane (LCH4) propellants. The first stage will use nine Tianque-12 engines, each producing approximately 1,000 kN of thrust. Target payload capacity is approximately 21,000 kg to LEO in reusable configuration, making it a medium-class competitor to Falcon 9.
LandSpace (蓝箭航天) is based in Beijing, founded in 2015, and is China’s premier commercial liquid rocket company. The company has invested heavily in developing its Tianque engine family — Tianque-11 (pressure-fed, Zhuque-2 first stage), Tianque-12 (larger, turbopump-fed) for Zhuque-3 — representing the most comprehensive methane rocket engine development program outside of SpaceX and Rocket Lab.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.