The Landspace commercial Zhuque-2 (ZQ-2) Liquid Methane/Liquid Oxygen (LOX) powered two-stage rocket failed on its maiden flight from the Jiuquan launch site in China. The launch took place at circa 0830 GMT on 14 December.
It is believed that the first stage worked correctly and that separation, and the second-stage main engine shutdown, occurred as planned. However, there was an apparent premature shutdown of the second-stage supplementary engine/vernier thruster, which needed to keep firing to achieve orbital velocity. The rocket was carrying Zhixing 1B plus 13 other spacecraft. The Zhuque-2 rocket uses four Tianque-12 (TQ-12) engines on its first stage and a single TQ-12 engine (vacuum version) on its second stage along with a single TQ-11 supplemental/vernier engine. It is this TQ-11 engine that is believed to have failed. The rocket is designed to carry four metric tons to a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.
The flame from the Zhuque-2 rocket looked beautiful as it launched. Unfortunately it did not reach orbit. Courtesy: Landspace
Correction applied since first published: Corrected for number of thrusters.
Drawing of Zhuque-2 rocket. Courtesy: Landspace
