Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been defeated at the hands of a Chinese startup. Musk’s SpaceX has been defeated in the race to launch a methane-fueled rocket by a Chinese startup, LandSpace Technology Corp.
According to the wire service, the development has bolstered the Asian nation’s goal of challenging the United States as the dominant power in space.
According to CCTV, a state broadcaster, the Chinese company launched its rocket — ZQ-2 — from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu province on Wednesday.
After a failed first attempt in December, the successful launch comes months later. An abnormality in a supplementary second-stage engine caused the attempt to fail.
The company announced in March that it had implemented improvements that had proven effective in ground tests.
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The rocket arrived at the launch facility in May, nine days after leaving LandSpace’s manufacturing base in Jiaxing, the company said, with final-stage preparations beginning on July 6.
As Elon Musk’s SpaceX was defeated at the hands of a Chinese startup, Musk’s SpaceX and other companies have been working on rockets that can use methane as fuel because it is cleaner and safer than the current fuels.
“The successful launch by LandSpace provides the Beijing-based company with bragging rights and boosts President Xi Jinping’s strategy to have China challenge the US in the race to dominate space,” according to Bloomberg.
Maxime Puteaux, who researches the space industry as a principal advisor with Paris-based Euroconsult, said: “[It’s] a major milestone.”
