China To Debut Nine New Space Rockets In 2025

As we step into a new year, China’s space industry is kicking things off with big plans to debut nine new space rockets within the year. These rockets can be grouped into two classes: Long March and commercial rockets, both of which will commandeer China’s space endeavours for this year.

Nine New Space Rockets Prepare To Join China’s Megaconstellation Projects

The nine new Long March rockets to be debuted this year in China are the Long March 8A and the Long March 12A. These are simply newer variants of the existing Long March 8 and Long March 12 rockets, with the 8A bringing more payload power and the 12A reusable.

For the commercial rockets to debut this year, we have the Zhuque-3, Tianlong-3, Pallas-1, Ceres-2, Nebula-1, Kinetica-2, and the Hyperbola-3. All seven commercial rockets to be mentioned to debut this year are all products of independent commercial firms in the Chinese space industry.

Landspace will launch the Zhuque-3, Space Pioneer will launch the Tianlong-3, and Galactic Energy will launch the Pallas-1 and Ceres-2. Other firms include Deep Blue Aerospace which will launch the Nebula-1, CAS Space will launch the Kinetica-2, and lastly Beijing Interstellar Glory Space will launch the Hyperbola-3.

Some of these rockets have been in testing since 2024 and failed to debut, pushing their release plans to this year. On this list, we have the Tianlong-3 and Nebula-1 which were to launch in 2024 but faced some complications that led to their launch being postponed to 2025.

Another commercial rocket rumoured to make an appearance in 2025 is the Gravity-2. This rocket is being developed by Orienspace; however, there is no official statement on its debut at this time.

Specifications And Features Of China’s Nine Rockets To Debut This Year

Starting with the Long March 8A, the official statement on this rocket points out that it’ll bring more power with a payload capacity of 7000kg to 700km SSO. The first flight of this rocket is slated for 19 January 2025 just days after the flight of the Long March 12A which will bring a reusable system.

For commercial rockets, the Zhuque-3 peaks the payload capacity with 21,000kg to LEO and it is also expandable. The smallest payload for any of the soon-to-debut commercial rockets in China is the Ceres-2 with 1600kg to LEO payload capacity.

The reusable commercial rockets on China’s soon-to-debut list are the Zhuque-3, Pallas-1, Kinetica-2, and Hyperbola-3 (to be reusable by 2026). There is no available information on the first flight schedule for any of the commercial rockets that China will debut this year.

However, we expect the Ceres-2 to enter its first flight in the first half of 2025. The Kinetica-2 will enter its first flight in the second half of 2025, in the coming months we expect to receive more details on the first flight schedule for all other soon-to-debut commercial rockets from China.