Three satellites with one rocket! Zhongke Aerospace Lijian-2’s maiden launch succeeds, unit cost rivals SpaceX

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China's commercial space sector has reached another milestone. The first flight of the Lijian-2 launch vehicle was a success, launching three satellites with one rocket and simultaneously presenting highly competitive cost metrics, showcasing the commercial potential of domestically produced medium-sized liquid rockets.

According to Xinhua News, at 19:00 on March 30, the Zhongke Aerospace Lijian-2 Y1 launch vehicle "International Textile Capital" was successfully launched at the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone, sending three satellites—Xinzhengcheng 01, Xinzhengcheng 02, and Tianshi Satellite 01—into their intended orbit. This was the 12th launch of the Lijian series and the first flight for Lijian-2.

On the cost front, Lijian-2's chief commander Yang Haoliang revealed a noteworthy set of data: Currently, the unit cost of Lijian-2 in a non-recoverable configuration is comparable to SpaceX's Falcon 9 in a reusable configuration. He further stated that once cluster recovery is achieved in the future, costs are expected to drop to half that of SpaceX.

First Flight Mission: CBC Configuration Achieves Key Technology Verification

Lijian-2 is a medium-sized liquid launch vehicle independently developed by Zhongke Aerospace, and is the first Chinese launch vehicle to adopt the "Common Booster Core" (CBC) configuration.

In terms of specs, Lijian-2's main core has a diameter of 3.35 meters, the fairing diameter for the maiden flight is 4.2 meters, a total length of 53 meters, a launch weight of 625 tons, takeoff thrust of 753 tons, 8 tons payload to a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit, and 12 tons to a 200 km low Earth orbit.

Zhongke Aerospace explained that this maiden flight mainly verified three key technologies: CBC configuration application, large-diameter smooth round tank structural design and manufacturing process, and large fairing horizontal separation technology. Lijian-2 supports 0/2/4 bundle configurations—that is, bare core or bundling 2/4 liquid boosters—giving flexible configurations that can cover the 2 to 20 ton low Earth orbit capacity range.

Each of the three satellites carried has a different focus:

Xinzhengcheng 01 was developed by Zhongke Satellite Technology Group Co., Ltd., positioned as a "mini space laboratory," and will conduct multiple in-orbit experiments and application demonstrations using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) experimental devices.

Xinzhengcheng 02 (White Elephant Space Experiment Craft) was independently developed by the CAS Innovation Institute for Micro-Satellites, with a total ship weight of 4.2 tons, three years of in-orbit capability, and a single-cabin integrated configuration design.

Cost Reduction Logic: Dual Path From Design to Mass Production

Lijian-2's competitive costs stem from a systemic approach to cost reduction established during the design phase.

Deputy Chief Engineer Lian Jie said the core logic of the CBC configuration is "trading design complexity for production simplicity," enabling commercial space rockets to achieve fast mass production. By combining common and customized designs, enveloping and probabilistic design, digitalization and test verification, Lijian-2 achieved shared design, modularity, shared testing, shared supply chain and production lines, shared final assembly workshops, shared technical zone workshops, and shared launch sites, thus "developing one model, expanding three models"—significantly shortening multi-model rocket R&D cycles and cutting development costs.

In terms of manufacturing process, Deputy Chief Engineer Zhang Yanrui revealed that the rocket's main tank discards the high-cost grid stiffened structure in favor of a flat-milled wall smooth tube structure. This process change enhanced overall production efficiency by 40% and resulted in a significant drop in manufacturing costs.

Yang Haoliang further explained that Lijian-2's core stage and booster stage share standardized structural designs; the first stage's 9 engines and the second stage's single engine use the same power modules; the telemetry and control avionics system is fully interchangeable with Lijian-1. This unified the rocket's core product line. Compared to Lijian-1's 1.5 tons to 500 km sun-synchronous orbit, Lijian-2 raises this to 8 tons, positioning it to support rapid deployment of China's low-orbit internet constellations.

Recovery Roadmap: Transitioning via the Lihong Series

After the maiden flight, Zhongke Aerospace will advance research and verification of reusable technologies.

Yang Haoliang explained that the company will first test recovery technologies with the Lihong series vehicles, accumulating recovery data and reducing development risks, and then transfer the technology to medium and large launch vehicles, ultimately adopting common core bundling and cluster recovery schemes to achieve recovery of large orbital launch vehicles.

Currently, the company has fully validated core technologies such as atmospheric reentry, deceleration and recovery, and precise rocket landing controls through Lihong-1's maiden flight, and plans to conduct Lihong-2's hundred-kilometer-level recovery tests this year.

Yang Haoliang said that once the cluster recovery scheme is implemented, Lijian-2's unit launch cost could drop further to half that of SpaceX's Falcon 9. However, rocket recovery technology still faces major challenges such as aerodynamic thermal protection across wide and fast airspace, real-time online guidance under nonlinear constraints, deep throttling and multiple starts for liquid propulsion.

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