China space programme plans year of milestones for Long March 9 rocket engines
- The YF-79 will be one of the world’s most powerful when completed and is on schedule for whole-of-machine testing in 2022
- Three of the four engines in development are for the rocket which will power the country’s missions to the moon, Mars and beyond
The CZ-9 – almost six times more powerful than the Long March 5 (CZ-5) – will also serve future missions to Mars and other interplanetary journeys.
Main space contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) outlined a number of milestones it expected to hit this year at its No. 6 Institute, where the liquid-fuel rocket engine development programme is based.
There will also be a half-system test of the second-stage YF-90 engine and a whole-of-machine test of an 80 tonne-thrust engine, according to a social media posting by the institute.
The YF-90, a 220-tonne-thrust supplement combustion cycle hydrogen-oxygen engine, will be a significant power increase on the CZ-5’s 50 tonne-thrust YF-77. Some of the YF-90’s specifications are expected to catch up with its most advanced counterparts. A prototype was only built last year.