China beats SpaceX, launches world's first methane-powered rocket

A private Chinese aerospace company, LandSpace, has won the race to launch a giant rocket powered by methane and liquid oxygen. The rocket blasted off at 9am today morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert. It has successfully delivered a test payload into sun-synchronous orbit…making it the first in the entire world to achieve this feat. This morning’s lift-off marked the second attempt for the Zhuque-2 rocket, after an unsuccessful launch on December 14. Earlier this year, two other liquid oxygen methane rockets – the Terran 1 from Relativity Space in the US and Starship of Space X had failed in their maiden attempts to reach orbit. LandSpace said that after the success of the test flight, they will further optimize the rocket, accumulate experiences for its reliability and safety, which will lay the foundation to provide low-cost and high-performance products for the market. #Chinamethanerocket #Methanefuelledrocket #Chinaspaceindustry