China To Launch Its Equivalent Of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 In July
China is preparing to launch its powerful Sky Dragon 3, or Tianlong-3 (TL-3) rocket. The launch is tentatively scheduled for July 2024. The TL-3 has been called SpaceX’s “Falcon 9 equivalent” for its powerful design and comparable performance.
About a year ago, Space Pioneer became the first in China to launch a liquid-fuel rocket into space. It was the middle rocket in the Space Pioneer development portfolio – the three-stage Tianlong-2 using kerosene-oxygen fuel pair. It would seem nothing unusual, but the Chinese were able to surprise. The aviation kerosene used in the engines of the Tianlong-2 rocket was produced from coal.
The successful launch of the Tianlong-2 rocket paved the way for preparations for the launch of the heavier Tianlong-3 rocket, which can already be considered a close equivalent of Elon Musk’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket. So, if the Falcon 9 in its non-returnable version launches 22.8 tons of payload into low orbit, then the Tianlong-3 rocket will be capable of launching 17 tons of payload into LEO and 14 tons of payload into sun-synchronous orbit.
The rocket is designed to create a Chinese low-orbit satellite Internet constellation.
