Watch the Launch

Demo Flight

Overview

Destination: Sun-Synchronous Orbit
Mission: Test Flight

Sun-Synchronous Orbit Launch Area 120 Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

First launch of the Tianlong-2 and first launch for the Chinese private company Space Pioneer. It carried a dummy payload and the iTaikong Science cubesat to SSO for technology demonstration and public outreach Earth observation purposes.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • April 2, 2023, 9:27 a.m.

Launch success.


Cosmic_Penguin • March 31, 2023, 9:11 a.m.

Rescheduled for April 2 per new NOTAMs.


Cosmic_Penguin • March 30, 2023, 2:45 p.m.

Launch apparently delayed with related NOTAMs cancelled.


Tianlong-2

Family: Tianlong
Configuration:

Tianlong-2 is a medium-sized, 3 stage rocket powered by RP-1 and liquid oxygen, with payload capability of 2 tonnes to LEO and 1.5 tonnes to SSO. Tianlong-2 has a liftoff weight of 150 tonnes, liftoff thrust of 190 tonnes and initially uses 3 YF-102 expander cycle RP-1/LOX engines on the first stage each with a thrust of 63.3 metric tonnes. The second stage uses 1 TH-11 staged combustion RP-1/LOX with a thrust of 30.6 metric tonnes. 7 TH-11 engines will be used for the 1st stage of subsequent vehicles. The third stage uses 1 TH-31 NTO/MMH hypergolic fuel engine with 3000 N thrust and 8 x 150 N RCS thrusters. The Tianlong-2 is the first Chinese RP-1-fueled private orbital rocket to attempt an orbital flight.

Specifications
  • Stages
    3
  • Length
    32.8 m
  • Diameter
    3.35 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    3.35 m
  • Launch Mass
    150 T
  • Thrust
    1863 kN
Family
  • Name
    Tianlong-2
  • Family
    Tianlong
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Tianlong-2
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
    2000 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    1500 kg

Space Pioneer

Space Pioneer

(SP)

CEO: Kang Yonglai Founded: 2015 Successes: 1 Failures: 0 Pending: 0

Agency Type: Commercial

Space Pioneer is a Chinese private space launch company based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Kang Yonglai.

WIKI

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Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

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