China is Working on a Rocket as Powerful as the Saturn V, Could Launch by 2030
The Chinese seem to be proceeding *real* slowly on their space program, but who can say what their real goals are. They used to kinda suck at space launchers, but the Clintons saw to that; Chinas ability to successfully orbit sizable payloads has certainly improved. And now that SpaceX, Blue Origin and maybe – just possibly – even NASA may soon have heavy lifters of their own, it makes sense that the Chinese will want one as well. He who controls the heavens controls the future, after all.
Seems the Chinese hope to conduct a main engine test for the CZ-9 later this year.
Chang Zheng-9 (Long March 9)
The Chang Zheng-9 (CZ-9, or Long March 9) is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended for future manned lunar landing and deep space exploration missions. The launch vehicle is described as a large rocket roughly 100 m in length and 8 to 9 m in diameter, assisted by two or four 3 m diameter solid rocket boosters, with a lift-off thrust of 5,200 to 5,500 tonnes. The launcher will be capable of delivering 130 tonnes of payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), exactly the same as the heavier Block 2 version of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS).
If the artists impression is accurate, the CZ-9 is clearly from the same train of thought that produced the SLS. Which means that it’ll probably cost something like the SLS, adjusted for Chinese costs rather than NASA bureaucracy. Which would be fine in normal times, but we seem to be heading into a whole new era… SpaceX and Blue Origin pull it off, or even just one of them, rockets like the CZ-9 will look *really* outdated.