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China has big plans for its massive new rocket
Researchers are developing a rocket that would be more powerful than any U.S. spacecraft, Chinese state media reported Monday. Phys.org reports that the Long March-9 rocket, set to be complete by 2030, would be capable of delivering 140 tons into low orbit.
NASA's upcoming Space Launch System, meanwhile, aims to deliver 130 tons, and the Falcon Heavy from SpaceX launched 64 tons toward Mars earlier this year. China is reportedly hoping to surpass its American and European competitors, planning to spend billions of dollars developing its space programs.
Full reusability for the Long March-9 is not mentioned.
As a point of comparison, the Saturn V rocket:
The Saturn V was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with no loss of crew or payload. As of 2018, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful (highest total impulse) rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds records for the heaviest payload launched and largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit (LEO) of 140,000 kg (310,000 lb), which included the third stage and unburned propellant needed to send the Apollo Command/Service Module and Lunar Module to the Moon.[5][6]
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by tfried on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:31AM
Well, the most typical Chinese approach is not to build the best thing in the world, but to build something good enough cheap. No mention of the price-tag, here, but it does not necessarily have to be the most powerful rocket in the world in order to be commercially successful.
Probably, commercial success is not the most important consideration, anyway. They also want to be able to put anything they want into orbit at any time, without having to ask the US (or Russia) for approval. And then, rocket technology is always dual use to a relatively high degree, esp. to a nuclear power.