A Chinese company has launched the world’s first methane-liquid oxygen space rocket into orbit.
The Zhuque-2 carrier rocket blasted off at 9 am local time (01:00 GMT) on Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and “completed the flight mission according to the procedure,” reports Al Jazeera.
According to the Chinese state media, the launch was the second attempt by Beijing-based firm LandSpace – one of the earliest companies in China’s commercial space sector – to launch the Zhuque-2, and its success beat out US rivals in developing what may become the next generation of launch vehicles, which are considered to be less polluting, safer, cheaper and a suitable propellant for a reusable rocket.
The first launch attempt of the Zhuqu-2 in December had failed.
News of LandSpace’s successful launch – which places China ahead of rivals such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin in the race to develop space vehicles fuelled by methane – came on the same day that China reported plans to send two rockets to the moon by 2030.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
