As the South China Morning Post wrote, China is ready to launch its oxygen-methane-powered Zhuque-2 (“Zhutse-2”) rocket into space. The launch is expected to take place from an area in the Gobi Desert (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) by December 15. If all goes well, Zhuque-2, developed by Beijing-based startup Landspace, will be the first oxy-methane rocket to reach orbit. Landspace is competing in the “space methane race” with American SpaceX and Relativity Space, which are also working on similar projects.

Methane is the main component of gas. As a rocket fuel, it is more efficient, easier to produce and environmentally friendly than refined kerosene. Methane has a higher thrust, which is one of the key parameters of rocket fuel efficiency. This means that a methane-powered rocket can launch the same or even larger payload into orbit with less fuel.

Another advantage of methane is that it is technically easier to produce than to purify kerosene. At most, it can be done on other planets. For example, on Mars or the Moon. For this reason, some scientists propose to extract methane by heating regolith (lunar soil), which contains small amounts of carbon and hydrogen.

But the methane engine has one problem – it has to do with the difficulty of igniting the fuel mixture, especially in the low-temperature space environment. The company that manages to solve this problem will be the winner of the “methane race”.

The Zhuque-2 is a two-stage missile with a height of about 50 meters and a width of more than 3 meters. A mixture of liquid methane and liquid oxygen is burned in its engine. The first stage uses four Tianque-12 engines with 80 tons of thrust, the second stage uses one such main engine and four additional engines with 10 tons of thrust Tianque-12 oxygen-hydrogen engine

In terms of dimensions, the Zhuque-2 is between the 120-metre SpaceX Starship and the 35-metre Relativity Space Terran 1. If Starship can launch 100 tons of payload into low Earth orbit, and Terrain 1 – 1.5 tons, then Zhuque-2 can launch 6 tons into the same orbit. The main difference between the Zhuque-2 and the American missiles is that it is reusable. Although Landspace is already working on such an option.

Landspace was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu, a graduate of Tsinghua University. The Zhuque-2 was originally supposed to launch in 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.