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
Ling Xin in Beijing
Published: 10:00pm, 30 Nov, 2022
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
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.
The rocket’s first stage has fins, making it recoverable 
with a tether capture system based on a platform at sea, according to a video released on Saturday by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
The Long March 5G is the most powerful rocket of its kind yet designed, surpassing the Falcon Heavy developed by California-based SpaceX, Chinese media reported.
Earlier this month, Liu Bing from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology said the first test flight is expected in 2027. 
He was speaking to state broadcaster CCTV from the Zhuhai air show, where both the YF-100N engine and the Long March 5G were on display.
Meanwhile, the overall configuration for China’s super heavy-lift launcher Long March 9 has been finalised, senior space official Long Lehao told CCTV on Friday.
Designed as the workhorse for construction of China’s moon base – and eventually, to take crewed missions to Mars – the
Long March 9 will be more powerful than Saturn V and Nasa’s Space Launch System, Long said. 
The 110 metre tall, 10.6 metre wide rocket will be capable of delivering 150 tonnes into low Earth orbit, 50 tonnes to a lunar transfer orbit, or 35 tonnes to an intermediary orbit for Mars.
Long said the Long March 9 would eventually be used for civilian purposes, mainly to establish solar power plants in space.
These will collect energy from the sun and convert it into a laser or microwave to be converted into electricity back on Earth.
“Some experts have calculated that if a 1km wide solar electromagnetic belt is laid on the 36,000km geosynchronous orbit, and it goes around the Earth, the energy received in one year is equal to the total amount of oil that can be exploited on Earth. This is terrific,” Long said.
“The construction of space solar power plants will provide inexhaustible, clean and safe energy.
Ling Xin
Ling Xin is a science journalist based in Beijing. She mainly covers physics, astronomy and space. Her writing has appeared in Science, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review and other English and Chinese outlets. She was a visiting journalist at Science magazine in Washington, and has a master's degree in journalism from Ohio University.
