Chinese company Deep Blue Aerospace has just announced that the 5-meter diameter stainless steel propellant tank for its Nebula-2 rocket has already rolled off the assembly line. It is a tank that has broken a size record within the Chinese private aerospace sector. However, there is something more interesting than the tank itself: Nebula-2’s recovery system. And Deep Blue Aerospace’s mission is nothing more than to recover a rocket’s first stage in mid-flight using a toothpick similar to SpaceX’s Mechazilla system. So far, only Elon Musk’s company has achieved this milestone. If they achieve this, they will show that China is serious about becoming another giant in the space sector.
A huge rocket. Nebula-2 has 11 Thunder-RS engines, which have a thrust of about 12,446 kN at takeoff, according to Interesting engineering. The second stage has a single engine optimized for vacuum. All going well will allow it to carry loads of up to 25 tons into Earth Orbit (LEO). To reduce production costs, the rocket can be reused more than 20 times.
Mechazilla 2. On October 13, 2024, SpaceX made history after recovering its Super Heavy rocket in the air with a chopstick-like system located on a tower called Mechazilla. Elon Musk’s company was already a pioneer in reusing rockets, but they usually did so by foot on the landing platform, a system that was much more expensive to manufacture and supply. Therefore, capturing rockets in mid-flight was a revolution. Now, Deep Blue Aerospace is considering trying the same with Nebula-2.
Background of China. In fact, China has tested rocket reuse before. On July 10, a Long March-10B rocket was fired directly onto an onboard network system. Other companies were able to recover their rockets, but by controlled landing by parachute. On the ground directly, only SpaceX and then Blue Origin achieved it. But China soon caught up. On August 19, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 booster recovered directly from the landing leg. Now, China wants to go further by emulating the chopstick method.
More motivation. This rocket reuse method has mainly been used to increase satellite launch rates for two major Chinese megaconstellations: Guowang and Qianfan. Both aim to be a competitor to Starlink, so the intention to emulate SpaceX is not based solely on reusability.
Evidence is still missing. Once the propellant tank leaves the assembly line, the Chinese company is already thinking about the first propulsion test of the second stage, which could be done later this year. If all goes well, China will be close to simulating another major SpaceX milestone.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson+chatgpt
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