China's Rocket Wave Is Already on the Pad
From lunar cargo haulers to commercial upstarts, a fleet of new Chinese launchers is weeks away from lift-off — and most want their stages back.
By The Space-Quantum Desk
At the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone inside Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, two rockets are standing vertical at the same time. One belongs to CASC, China's state-owned launch provider. The other belongs to Galactic Energy, a commercial firm that did not exist a decade ago. Both are kerosene-fuelled, both have landing legs, and neither has flown. That image — two very different rockets, same pad zone, same approximate moment — is a fair summary of where Chinese launch is right now. [1]
The surge is not accidental. China's ambition to populate low Earth orbit with megaconstellation satellites has exposed a hard ceiling on how many payloads its existing fleet can lift each year, and the government and private sector are racing to raise that ceiling simultaneously. [1]
What makes this moment different from previous launch booms is not the number of vehicles in development — it is how many of them share a common technical ambition: to land the first stage and fly it again. Reusability has shifted from aspiration to engineering checklist, and the checkboxes are being ticked in public, one milestone at a time.
CASC's Long March 12B is the most visible example. Unofficial images show it vertical at Jiuquan, landing legs already installed. The rocket is a 4-meter-diameter class vehicle burning kerosene and liquid oxygen, with a stated 20-ton-class low Earth orbit carrying capacity — though actual figures for expendable and recoverable modes are unknown. [1]
The 12A is capable of delivering around 9,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO), or around 6,000 kg when the first stage is recovered; it already has a dedicated landing site downrange of Jiuquan. The 12A's first recovery attempt failed, making the 12B's landing-leg installation a statement of intent rather than guaranteed action — officials have not confirmed whether a recovery will be attempted on the inaugural flight. No firm launch date has been set for the 12B, though earlier statements indicated a planned launch within the first half of 2026. [1]
Sharing the Dongfeng zone with the 12B is Galactic Energy's Pallas-1, the company's first liquid propellant launcher. On May 26, Galactic Energy confirmed it had completed phase 1 of the Pallas series launch site. Pallas-1 arrives with grid fins and landing legs already fitted, but the company is not planning a recovery attempt on flight one — a sensible sequencing choice given how rarely debut flights proceed exactly as written. Galactic Energy's longer-term target is the Pallas-2, a much larger rocket rated for 20,000 kg to LEO, with a planned debut in 2027. [1]
The commercial tier is not simply copying state architecture. Each firm is making distinct engineering bets — on propellant choice, on recovery method, on the timing of when reusability enters the operational picture. The diversity of approaches is itself a form of institutional hedging, a way of discovering which solutions actually survive contact with the atmosphere on the way down.
iSpace is pursuing sea recovery for its Hyperbola-3. On May 17, the company reported that its first-stage sea recovery landing system had completed full-profile ground verification, including a full-scale drop and shock test using a flight-weight first stage and landing legs. The rocket is officially expected to debut before the end of 2026, though the pace of recent milestones suggests iSpace could be ready earlier. [1]
The rocket successfully reached orbit late last year but failed in the latter stages of a first stage powered descent and landing attempt — a result that counts as partial progress in a domain where the margins are brutally narrow. Reports suggest the vehicle has shipped to Jiuquan, but no imminent launch has been signalled. [1]
None of these vehicles carry the geopolitical weight of the Long March 10B. The launch has been anticipated, but an attempt may not come until July. When it does fly, it will be the first practical demonstration of the architecture China intends to use for crewed lunar missions. [1]
The Long March 10A, the crewed variant, is expected to follow later in 2026. The abort test geometry means engineers now have real data on how the vehicle behaves during the descent phase — data that will matter enormously when crew are aboard. [1]
There is a rhythm to how this wave is unfolding — state and commercial, large and small, orbital and sub-orbital ambitions interleaved. It does not feel like a coordinated plan so much as a shared urgency, a recognition that the cost of waiting is measured in constellation slots filled by someone else.
The recent track record is mixed enough to keep expectations calibrated. Two new Chinese rockets debuted in March and April 2026: Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 failed to reach orbit, while CAS Space's Kinetica-2 succeeded. One for two is not a crisis, but it is a reminder that debut flights are genuinely difficult, and that landing a stage after a debut flight is harder still. [1]
What the queue of vehicles on and near the pad represents is a system under stress in a productive direction. The launch bottleneck that China's megaconstellation programs are running into is real, and the answer being assembled at Jiuquan and Wenchang is a fleet of reusable rockets spanning two tons to twenty, state-built and venture-backed, burning methane, kerosene, and ambition in roughly equal proportions. [1]
The landing legs are already installed. The only question is which stage comes home first — and whether the wire-catch ship at sea is ready when the Long March 10B decides to find out. [1]