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Reusable space rocket engine test boosts China’s crewed moon landing ambitions

  • The YF-100N engine can support ‘at least 10 flights’ and has completed its first restart testing, its developer said
  • 21 engines will be used in the Long March 5G, expected to be the most powerful rocket of its kind when it makes its first test flight in 2027

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Ground tests were carried out on the YF-100N, China’s first reusable rocket engine, before a recent test flight. Photo: Xian Aerospace Propulsion Institute
Ling Xinin Beijing
China is one step closer to its goal of sending humans to the moon in a reusable launch vehicle before 2030 following the first restart test of its 130-tonne-thrust YF-100N rocket engine.
Developer Xian Aerospace Propulsion Institute gave no technical details of the test, but said it “laid a solid foundation for developing China’s reusable space transport system to meet the needs of space station operations, and boost large-scale, low-cost access to space”.
The kerosene-liquid oxygen engine is a reusable version of the existing YF-100 workhorse – used on the Long March 5, 6 and 7 rockets – and can support at least 10 flights, it said.

According to a paper published in the Chinese journal Manned Spaceflight in August, 21 YF-100N engines will power China’s next generation launch vehicle, the Long March 5G, with seven YF-100N engines in its first stage and seven for each of its two boosters.

The Long March 5G, at 90 metres (295 feet) high and five metres wide, will be able to send 27 tonnes into trans-lunar injection, setting it on course for the moon and more than tripling the capacity of its predecessor the Long March 5B, the paper said.

China plans to launch two Long March 5G rockets for its crewed lunar missions, sending its astronauts and a landing stack separately into space, Chinese media reports said. They will rendezvous in lunar orbit before making the landing, putting two or three astronauts on the moon’s surface.

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