China’s Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicles

The Heart of China’s Space Strategy

China’s national space program is currently executing a deliberate, state-directed industrial strategy designed to secure a preeminent position in space. This endeavor is not a scattershot technological pursuit but a methodical, whole-of-nation approach. It is structured around a clear timeline of non-negotiable national goals. Each new launch vehicle that China builds is a specific tool, engineered to solve a specific strategic challenge.

The program’s ambitions are built on three distinct pillars, each with a dedicated rocket family.

The first pillar is present-day dominance in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This is embodied by the operational Tiangong space station, a permanently crewed, multi-module laboratory in orbit. This achievement was made possible only by China’s current operational heavy-lift rocket, the Long March 5. This vehicle serves as the workhorse for launching the 20-ton modules that form the station’s backbone.

The second pillar is a near-term lunar presence. The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has a firm and public deadline: to land its astronauts, or taikonauts, on the Moon by 2030. This objective has driven the rapid development of the Long March 10, a new-generation rocket specifically designed to lift the 27-ton mass of the crewed lunar lander and spacecraft. As of late 2025, this program is reported to be on track.

The third pillar is long-term deep space infrastructure. This is the most ambitious goal, centered on the construction of a permanent, robotic, and eventually crewed lunar base known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) by 2035. This massive engineering project requires a launch capability far beyond anything China currently possesses. The solution is the planned Long March 9, a super-heavy-lift vehicle designed to be the primary construction vehicle for this lunar outpost and future missions to Mars.

This development is not happening in a vacuum. The state-run China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is being pushed by, and is learning from, a vibrant and rapidly accelerating commercial space sector. Private companies are developing their own heavy-lift, reusable rockets, creating a “dual-track” model of innovation. The state’s methodical, long-term programs and the commercial sector’s high-speed, competitive “race” are now de-risking each other’s technologies, allowing China to compress decades of development into just a few years.

This article details the three heavy-lift and super-heavy-lift rockets at the heart of China’s national strategy: the operational Long March 5, the in-development Long March 10, and the planned Long March 9.

Defining Heavy-Lift Capacity

To understand the scale of these rockets, it’s necessary to define the terms used to classify them. Launch vehicles are categorized by how much mass, or payload, they can lift into a standard orbit. The most common benchmark is Low Earth Orbit (LEO), an altitude of roughly 200 to 2,000 kilometers.

The NASA classification system is the most widely used standard:

• Medium-Lift: A rocket capable of lifting between 2,000 and 20,000 kilograms (4,400 to 44,100 pounds) to LEO.
• Heavy-Lift (HLV): A rocket capable of lifting between 20,000 and 50,000 kilograms (44,000 to 110,000 pounds) to LEO.
• Super-Heavy-Lift (SHLLV): A rocket capable of lifting over 50,000 kilograms (110,000 pounds) to LEO.

Under this system, China’s operational Long March 5 is a heavy-lift vehicle. The upcoming Long March 10 and the planned Long March 9, as well as rockets like the SpaceX Starship and the Saturn V that powered the Apollo missions, are all classified as super-heavy-lift vehicles.

China’s Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicles: A Comparative Snapshot

The progression of China’s heavy-lift capabilities is best understood by comparing the vehicles side-by-side. The following table provides an at-a-glance reference for the rockets detailed in this report, showing the clear evolution in payload, propellant, and reusability.

The Long March 5 (Chang Zheng 5, or CZ-5) is the foundational rocket of China’s modern space ambitions. It is the country’s first-generation heavy-lift vehicle and, after a challenging development, has become the reliable workhorse for its most important and high-profile national missions.

The Foundation of China’s Modern Space Program

Before the Long March 5, China’s space program was constrained by the medium-lift capacity of its older rockets. It could not independently launch heavy communications satellites, large interplanetary probes, or the components for a modular space station.

The Long March 5, which had its inaugural flight in 2016, was designed to solve this problem. It was China’s first heavy launcher designed from the ground up to use non-toxic, non-polluting propellants. Its successful introduction more than doubled the payload capacity of any other Chinese rocket, giving the nation a launcher with capabilities that roughly matched the American Delta IV Heavy, the European Ariane 5, and the Russian Proton-M. It was the key that unlocked the modern era of Chinese space exploration.

Long March 5 Design: A Two-Stage Cryogenic System

The Long March 5 is a large, two-stage rocket with a modular design. It stands nearly 57 meters tall and features a 5-meter-diameter core, significantly wider than its predecessors. Its power comes from two different types of advanced liquid-fueled engines.

The Cryogenic Core: YF-77 Engines

The rocket’s central core stage, which acts as the “sustainer” for the flight, is powered by two YF-77 engines. This is China’s first high-thrust cryogenic engine. “Cryogenic” means its propellants, liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX), must be stored at extremely low, or cryogenic, temperatures to remain in a liquid state.

This fuel combination is highly efficient. It produces a very high specific impulse, which is a measure of how much “push” (or thrust) an engine can generate from a given amount of fuel. While cryogenic engines are complex, their efficiency makes them ideal for a rocket’s core stage, which does much of its work high in the atmosphere or in the vacuum of space.

Kerolox Boosters: The YF-100 Engine

The immense thrust needed to get the 869-ton rocket off the launch pad comes from four large strap-on boosters. Each of these boosters is 3.35 meters in diameter and powered by two YF-100 engines, for a total of eight YF-100s firing at liftoff.

The YF-100 is a “kerolox” engine, burning rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen. This propellant combination is much denser than the core’s liquid hydrogen and provides immense, stable thrust at sea level.

This design architecture – using powerful kerolox boosters for initial liftoff and a high-efficiency hydrolox core for sustained flight – was a pragmatic and proven choice. It is a similar design to the European Ariane 5 and Japanese H-II rockets. For its first heavy-lifter, China adopted a reliable, globally successful model, focusing on catching up to existing capabilities rather than reinventing the wheel.

Variants for Different Missions: CZ-5 and CZ-5B

The Long March 5 family has two main variants, each tailored for a specific mission profile. This specialization demonstrates a “form follows function” design philosophy.

The Long March 5 (CZ-5) is the base variant. It’s the full two-stage core plus the four boosters. This configuration is designed for high-energy missions, such as sending heavy payloads to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) or on trajectories to the Moon and other planets. It has a GTO payload capacity of approximately 14,000 kg.

The Long March 5B (CZ-5B) is the LEO variant. It consists of the same core stage and four boosters but removes the second stage entirely. This modification allows the rocket to launch a single, extremely large-volume payload into Low Earth Orbit. Its LEO capacity is approximately 25,000 kg.

The two variants are specialized tools. The CZ-5 is the “interplanetary bus,” used for deep space exploration. The CZ-5B is the “space truck,” used for LEO construction.

A Record of National Milestones

After a failed launch in 2017 that grounded the rocket for two and a half years, the Long March 5 returned to flight in 2019 and has since built a record of flawless, high-stakes successes. All its launches take place from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, a modern coastal facility on Hainan Island.

Building the Tiangong Space Station

The Tiangong space station, China’s permanently crewed orbital laboratory, exists only because of the Long March 5B. The station’s three primary modules each weighed over 20 metric tons, far too heavy for any other Chinese rocket.

The Long March 5B was the only vehicle that could do the job. It successfully propelled all three modules of the space station to orbit:

• Tianhe Core Module: Launched in April 2021.
• Wentian Laboratory Module: Launched in July 2022.
• Mengtian Laboratory Module: Launched in October 2022.

In under two years, the CZ-5B enabled the complete assembly of a T-shaped, 100-ton space station, a feat that would have been impossible without it.

Exploring the Solar System: Tianwen-1 to Mars

On July 23, 2020, a Long March 5 rocket launched China’s first independent interplanetary mission: Tianwen-1. This was an extraordinarily ambitious mission for a first attempt. The rocket didn’t just send a simple orbiter; it launched a 5-metric-ton probe that consisted of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, all in a single flight. No other rocket in China’s fleet could have launched this multi-part spacecraft. The mission was a complete success, making China only the second nation to successfully land and operate a rover on the Martian surface.

Conquering the Moon: The Chang’e Missions

The Long March 5 is also the rocket of choice for China’s flagship lunar exploration program. It launched the Chang’e 5 mission in 2020, which successfully returned the first lunar samples to Earth in over four decades.

More recently, the rocket launched the historic Chang’e 6 mission in May 2024. This mission accomplished what no nation had done before: it landed on the far side of the Moon, collected samples, and returned them to Earth. This mission required an upgraded version of the rocket, the Long March-5 Y8. The Chang’e 6 probe was 100 kg heavier than its predecessor, and this “considerable upgrade” to the rocket’s lunar transfer capability was essential for the mission’s success. This demonstrates China’s continuous, iterative improvement of its operational systems.

The Moon Rocket: Long March 10 (Under Development)

While the Long March 5 secured China’s position in space, the Long March 10 (CZ-10) is being built to achieve a goal that will redefine it: landing taikonauts on the Moon. This rocket is not an exploratory project; it’s a purpose-built vehicle moving at incredible speed to meet a non-negotiable deadline.

A Rocket for a 2030 Deadline: The Crewed Lunar Program

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has repeatedly and publicly stated its firm goal: land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. As of late 2025, officials have confirmed the program is on track, with development of the rocket, spacecraft, and lander advancing as planned. The Long March 10 is the lynchpin of this entire enterprise.

Long March 10 Architecture: Power for a Lunar Stack

The Long March 10 is a new-generation, three-stage rocket. It is a massive vehicle, standing approximately 92.5 to 93.2 meters tall (roughly the height of a 32-story building) with a 5-meter-diameter core.

Its design is a departure from the Long March 5. Instead of four side boosters, it is expected to have two, each attached to a core stage, all using kerolox propellants. But its single most important design feature is its payload capacity. The rocket is being engineered to send a payload of at least 27 tonnes (27,000 kg) directly to a Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO).

This 27-ton capability is the entire point of the rocket. China’s current heavy-lifter, the Long March 5, can send about 8.2 tonnes to the Moon, as it did with the Chang’e 6 probe. The Long March 10 will more than triple that capacity. This isn’t an arbitrary number. It is a figure derived directly from the hardware required for the crewed lunar mission.

The Crewed Lunar Mission Profile

China’s plan for landing on the Moon is different from the single-launch Apollo model. It’s a two-launch architecture, and it requires two Long March 10 rockets.

1. Launch 1: The first Long March 10 will launch the Lanyue lunar lander. This 26,000 kg (26-tonne) vehicle stack, which includes a propulsion stage, will be sent to lunar orbit, where it will wait.
2. Launch 2: The second Long March 10 will launch the Mengzhou crew spacecraft (a new-generation vehicle) carrying three taikonauts.

The Mengzhou spacecraft will rendezvous and dock with the Lanyue lander in lunar orbit. Two astronauts will transfer to the lander, descend to the lunar surface, and conduct their mission. They will then ascend in a portion of the lander to re-dock with the Mengzhou, which will then return them to Earth.

This entire architecture is built around the 26-tonne mass of the lander. The Long March 10’s 27-tonne LTO capacity is not an accident; it is a perfect example of design-to-mission integration. The rocket is being built to exactly match the mass of the hardware it must send to the Moon.

Rapid Progress: The 2025 Engine Test Campaign

The Long March 10 is not a “paper rocket.” A series of major ground tests in 2025 have demonstrated that the hardware is real and that the 2030 schedule is plausible.

On August 15, 2025, CASC conducted the first-ever static fire test of the Long March 10’s first stage. This was a “brute force” test, with seven engines ignited simultaneously. The test was a complete success, generating a combined thrust of nearly 1,000 metric tons – a new domestic record – and evaluating the simultaneous working capacity of the clustered engines.

Just a month later, on September 12, 2025, a second, more complex static fire test was performed. The seven engines were fired again, this time for 320 seconds. This test was designed to check more subtle, but even more important, capabilities: the engines’ performance in a “low-thrust status” and their “re-ignition processes.”

This second test’s focus on re-ignition is a clear confirmation of the rocket’s design. A first-stage rocket engine only needs to be “re-ignited” in flight for one reason: to perform a powered landing, just as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 boosters do. This test “comprehensively verified… the working procedure for recovery.” This single data point confirms that booster reusability is a core feature of the Long March 10, baked in from the beginning, not a future aspiration.

The YF-100K Engine: The Power Behind the Push

The Long March 10’s first stage is powered by seven YF-100K engines. This is a new, upgraded, and reusable version of the highly successful YF-100 kerolox engine used on the Long March 5’s boosters. The YF-100K is the single most important component of the moon rocket; a failure in its development would doom the 2030 timeline.

China’s CASC, in an incredibly intelligent program management strategy, found a way to “flight-prove” this critical engine before it ever flew on the Long March 10.

On November 30, 2024, CASC launched an entirely different rocket, the new medium-lift Long March 12. While this rocket’s public mission was to launch satellites, its primary engineering mission was to serve as a testbed. This launch featured the YF-100K engine in its “initial orbital launch attempt.”

This means that by the time the Long March 10 first stage was being static-fired in August 2025, its engines had already been successfully tested in space. This is a brilliant de-risking strategy, isolating the single biggest point of failure and ensuring the moon rocket’s development can proceed with confidence.

Reusability Concepts: The Long March 10A and Tethered Landing

The Long March 10 program also includes a smaller variant, the Long March 10A. This is a two-stage rocket (without the lunar mission’s third stage) designed for LEO missions, not the Moon. It’s intended to compete for commercial satellite launches.

The 10A will be able to lift about 18,000 kg to LEO in an expendable mode. When its first stage is recovered, its payload will be about 14,000 kg.

This variant is planned to test a unique recovery method. Instead of using heavy landing legs like a Falcon 9, the LM-10A booster is designed to deploy “hooks.” It will then be “caught by a tensioned wire system on the ground.” This “tethered landing” concept, while unproven, is lighter than a landing-leg system and shows that China is not just copying existing technology but is actively exploring alternative engineering paths to achieve reusability.

The Super-Heavy Future: Long March 9 (Planned)

If the Long March 10 is designed to land a few astronauts on the Moon, the Long March 9 (CZ-9) is being designed to build a city. This rocket represents China’s long-term, super-heavy-lift plans, and its design has undergone a radical and strategically significant transformation.

The Strategic Driver: An International Lunar Research Station

Why build the Long March 9, a 150-ton-class rocket, when you are already building the 70-ton-class Long March 10? The answer is the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).

The ILRS is China’s grandest space ambition. It’s a planned permanent scientific base on the Moon, led by China and Russia, and open to all international partners. This is not a small outpost; it’s a massive infrastructure project involving multiple facilities, power plants, and long-term robotic and human operations. The construction phase is planned from 2026 to 2035.

This timeline reveals the strategy. The Long March 10 is for the 2030 crewed “flag and footprints” mission. The Long March 9, with its first flight planned for around 2033, is the heavy-lift construction vehicle for the ILRS. It is the only vehicle capable of launching the massive core components of the base, such as the ILRS-1 and ILRS-2 missions.

A Radical Redesign: From Expendable to Reusable

The Long March 9 of today looks nothing like the original plan. This pivot is perhaps the most telling indicator of China’s long-term strategy and its willingness to adapt.

The Original Long March 9: Boosters and Kerolox

From 2009 to 2021, the Long March 9 was conceived as a traditional, fully expendable rocket. Its design was “inspired” by NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and its predecessor, the Ares V. It featured a massive core stage augmented by four or more powerful strap-on boosters. It was an “SLS-style” rocket, designed for maximum lift capacity with no reusability.

The YF-130 Engine: A Powerful Engine Now in Question

This original, expendable design was to be powered by a new, massive engine: the YF-130. This is a 500-ton-thrust, dual-nozzle kerolox engine, one of the most powerful of its kind ever developed. A successful hot-fire test of the engine was completed as recently as November 2022.

The New Long March 9: A “Starship-Style” Methalox Rocket

Sometime between 2022 and 2023, China’s space leadership made a radical decision: they scrapped the entire expendable, booster-based design.

A new design for the Long March 9 was revealed, and it “bears a striking resemblance to SpaceX’s Starship.” The boosters are gone. The expendable-first design is gone. The new Long March 9 is a two-stage, single-core, fully reusable rocket. It stands 114 meters tall with a 10.6-meter diameter.

This was not a minor update; it was a “Great Pivot.” China’s leaders observed the rapid success of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 and the paradigm-shifting potential of the fully reusable Starship. They concluded that their original, SLS-style rocket was an obsolete, expendable dead-end. In an incredible display of programmatic agility, they were willing to “cancel… and recreate” a multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar national program to avoid building the wrong rocket.

Embracing Methane: The Next Generation of Propulsion

The most significant change in the Long March 9’s redesign is its fuel. The new version is a “methalox” rocket, burning liquid methane (CH4) and liquid oxygen (LOX).

Methane is the fuel of choice for reusable rockets. Kerosene engines, like the YF-100K, are powerful, but they burn “dirty,” leaving behind a soot-like residue called “coking.” This residue must be meticulously cleaned and refurbished after every flight, a process that takes time and money. Methane, by contrast, burns very cleanly. This makes engines far easier to inspect, service, and refly quickly, enabling the kind of rapid, aircraft-like reusability that a rocket like Starship – or the new Long March 9 – is designed for.

The new rocket’s first stage is planned to be powered by 30 methalox engines (designated YF-215 or a similar 200-ton-thrust model) clustered at its base, another design choice taken directly from the Starship playbook.

This pivot carries risk. While China is also developing a kerolox rocket (the LM-10), it is clear they are hedging their bets. Even after the methalox pivot was announced, state-run institutes were still testing the massive YF-130 kerolox engine for the old design. This is not confusion. It’s an expensive but smart, parallel-path strategy. China is publicly pursuing the high-risk, high-reward methalox rocket (the “Starship” clone) while simultaneously keeping the lower-risk, lower-reward kerolox engine (for the “SLS” clone) in development as a “fallback option.”

A Long-Term Vision for Deep Space

The new Long March 9 is a super-heavy-lift vehicle in the truest sense. Its planned capability is 150,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit and 54,000 kg to Trans-Lunar Injection. This is a rocket designed to build the ILRS and, as official sources state, “can be used to launch manned Mars missions in the future.” The first flight is not expected until 2033, with the fully reusable version coming online in the 2040s.

New Rockets Paving the Way

China’s development of the LM-10 and LM-9 is not happening in isolation. The state program is using smaller, next-generation rockets as testbeds to prove out the technologies needed for its moonshot and its super-heavy-lift future.

Long March 8: China’s Reusability Testbed

The Long March 8 (CZ-8) is a medium-lift rocket that debuted in December 2020. From its inception, it was announced as China’s first rocket “intended to eventually be outfitted for recovery and reuse.” Early plans for the “LM-8R” variant showed a rocket with grid fins and landing legs, designed to perform a vertical landing just like a Falcon 9.

However, after its second launch in early 2022, there was no indication that any landing tests were performed. It appears the LM-8R program may have stalled, or, more likely, its lessons were quietly absorbed into the newer, more focused reusability programs: the LM-10A (with its tethered landing) and the booming commercial sector.

Long March 12: Flight-Proving the Moon Rocket’s Engines

A far more successful example is the Long March 12 (CZ-12), a new rocket that debuted on November 30, 2024. Its public-facing “day job” is to launch satellites for China’s new internet constellations from the country’s first commercial spaceport in Wenchang.

But its real mission, on its very first flight, was to serve as a high-stakes engineering test. That launch “featured the new YF-100K rocket engine in its initial orbital launch attempt.” This is the exact same engine that the Long March 10 moon rocket depends on.

CASC used the maiden flight of a commercial satellite rocket to give the engines for its 2030 moonshot their first-ever “flight heritage.” This is the de-risking strategy in action, providing the most compelling evidence of a mature, integrated, and highly intelligent national space program.

The Commercial Challenge: Private Heavy-Lift

The state-run CASC is not operating alone. It is now in a “dual-track” race, both competing with and learning from a fast-moving private space sector. This commercial sector is now a major factor in China’s heavy-lift ambitions.

LandSpace and the Zhuque-3

The leading private company is LandSpace, which is building the Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3). This rocket is a “Chinese Falcon 9” in its payload class, a two-stage, reusable rocket designed to lift approximately 18,300 kg to LEO in its expendable configuration.

But its technology is a fascinating hybrid. While its payload matches the Falcon 9, its design is pure Starship. It is built from stainless steel and is powered by methalox engines. This makes the Zhuque-3 a direct commercial competitor to the state’s own LM-8 and LM-12, but it’s also a technology pathfinder for the state’s future LM-9.

A Private Methalox Rocket on the Launchpad

LandSpace is moving at a phenomenal pace. As of late 2025, the Zhuque-3 is on the launchpad. The first flight article, ZQ-3 Y1, completed its full propellant-loading rehearsals and a successful first-stage static fire test at the launch pad between October 18 and 20, 2025.

Its maiden launch, which will also be China’s “first attempt to recover a large reusable rocket from orbit,” is planned for November or December 2025. If successful, a private Chinese company will have achieved orbital-class booster recovery before the state-run CASC. This commercial pressure forces the state to move faster, while also proving the technologies the state plans to use for its own future.

TQ-12: A Rival Engine to the State Program

This private success story is built on LandSpace’s TQ-12 methalox engine, China’s first privately developed liquid rocket engine. And it’s here that the commercial sector’s true value to the national strategy becomes clear.

On its second flight in 2023, LandSpace’s Zhuque-2 rocket (the ZQ-3’s smaller predecessor) became the world’s first methalox-fueled rocket to successfully reach orbit. A private Chinese company beat SpaceX, Blue Origin, and every other company on Earth to that specific milestone.

This achievement did more than just put LandSpace on the map. It proved the viability of methalox propulsion. It gave China’s state-run CASC the hard data, technical confidence, and internal political cover it needed to make “The Great Pivot” – to scrap its old LM-9 design and bet the nation’s entire super-heavy-lift future on methalox. The commercial sector had acted as the state’s high-speed R&D pathfinder.

Summary

China’s heavy-lift rocket program is not a single project but a multi-layered, “whole-of-nation” ecosystem. It is defined by a clear, 1-to-1 link between a strategic national goal and a specific rocket being built to achieve it.

The Long March 5 is the operational workhorse of the present. It is the reliable heavy-lifter that established China as a major space power, enabling the construction of the Tiangong space station and launching historic, first-of-their-kind missions to the Moon and Mars.

The Long March 10 is the single-minded “Moon rocket” of the near future. It is a vehicle being developed with incredible speed and focus to meet the 2030 lunar landing deadline. Its 27-ton LTO capacity is precisely engineered to launch the 26-ton Lanyue lander. Its development is being intelligently de-risked by a methodical test campaign, most notably by flight-proving its critical YF-100K engines on the separate Long March 12 rocket program.

The Long March 9 is the long-term strategic “bet” on the future. Its radical redesign represents a significant pivot, moving the entire national super-heavy-lift program away from an expendable SLS-clone and toward a fully reusable Starship-clone. This demonstrates a pragmatic agility and a clear-eyed understanding of the new, reusability-driven space paradigm.

These state-run programs are being accelerated by a competitive “dual-track” model. The methodical state (CASC) and the agile commercial sector (LandSpace) are now in a symbiotic race. LandSpace’s world-first methalox-to-orbit success de-risked the state’s Long March 9 pivot. CASC’s Long March 12 de-risked the state’s Long March 10 moonshot. This interplay, where the state and commercial sectors compete, test, and prove each other’s technologies, is the true engine of China’s “compressed” innovation and the single most important factor in its accelerating drive to become the world’s preeminent spacefaring nation.