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| Attribute | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | LandSpace | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC | Gilmour Space Technologies |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇨🇳 China | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Small |
| Propellant | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) | Hybrid (Sirius motors, stages 1–2) / liquid (Phoenix engine, stage 3) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2020 | 2025 |
| Payload to LEO | 6,000 kgas of [1]4,000 kg to 500 km SSO. Enhanced variant of the base Zhuque-2 with a common-bulkhead tank, TQ-15 thrust-vectoring engine on stage 2, and a niobium-alloy nozzle extension. A further-improved Block 2 first flew 2026-05-14 with subcooled propellant loading and a 3-ignition second stage. | 8,100 kgas of [1]5,000 kg to 700 km SSO (base); the enlarged-second-stage 8A variant (first flew 2025-02-11) lifts 7,000 kg to the same SSO reference orbit. ↑ Best | 300 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | 50.3 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 25 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] | 0/1as of [1]Maiden flight 2025-07-30 crashed 14 seconds after launch (insufficient thrust), from Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Queensland — Australia's first domestic orbital launch attempt. Preceded by two scrubs (2025-05-15 electrical issue, 2025-05-16 fairing anomaly). A second test flight was slated for early 2026. Block 2 (1,000 kg payload) and Eris Heavy (4,000 kg payload) variants are planned. |
| Total flights | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best | 1as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | LandSpace's enhanced methalox launcher, the higher-performance successor to the original Zhuque-2 (the first methalox rocket ever to reach orbit, in 2023) — see slug 'zhuque-2' for the original vehicle already in our database. | A two-stage medium-lift launcher originally designed with a reusable combined-booster-recovery concept in mind, though currently operational vehicles fly expendable. Exclusively from Wenchang. | Australia's first domestically developed orbital launch vehicle attempt, using a hybrid-propellant first and second stage; the maiden flight failed 14 seconds after liftoff in July 2025. |
48 launch vehicles across 10 countries — active, retired, and in development — with primary-source citations from manufacturer user guides and agency press kits. Pure URL state: bookmark or share the link and the comparison reproduces exactly.