China carries out verification flight test on reusable liquid rocket

The SQX-2 verification rocket blasted off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Thursday. About one minute later, the rocket landed smoothly and accurately at the target landing site. The flight test mission was a complete success. This is the first time China has carried out a vertical takeoff and landing tests of a full-size substage of a reusable liquid-propellant rocket. 　

ISpace, a Beijing-based private rocket developer, independently developed the SQX-2 rocket. The mission was to validate vertical recovery and reuse technology for the liquid oxygen-methane vehicle. 　

It is understood that the verification rocket for this flight has a diameter of 3.35 meters and a total length of about 17 meters. The test flight height is 178.42 meters and the flight lasts 50.82 seconds. The landing position accuracy is about 1.68 meters, and the landing speed is 0.025 meters per second. The landing attitude angle is about 0.18 degrees, and the roll angle is about 4 degrees. The flight test mission is successfully completed with high precision. 

The flight test verified the correctness of relevant schemes for the reuse of liquid rockets, obtained the core test data of critical technologies for the reuse of liquid oxygen-methane rockets, and provided strong technical support for the development of SQX-3, a medium and large reusable liquid carrier rocket under development.