China successfully tests new engine for its powerful Long March 9 rocket

China has successfully conducted the test of a new powerful engine for its super heavy-lift rocket for its lunar missions.

According to reports, the engine is being designed to power the third stage of China’s planned Long March 9 —a super heavy-lift rocket which is being designed for space missions such as a crewed lunar landing and exploration on Mars.

On Saturday, the Beijing Astronautics Experiment Institute of Technology (BAEIT) announced that the first prototype of the 25-tonne YF-79 rocket engine overcame technical difficulties.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

BAEIT is a unit of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s space programme which developed the closed-cycle rocket engine.

“Three ground tests of the new hydrogen-oxygen engine were successfully completed on Friday,” said BAEIT in a statement.

Over the past week, the agency held 12 ignition tests on the new engine, as well as a high-thrust hydrogen-oxygen engine and an orbital control engine, BAEIT said without giving further details.

“Our teams … shortened the test cycles and increased test capacity, and achieved consecutive successes,” it said in a statement on its WeChat social media account, the South China Morning Post reported.

According to CASC, the engine uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant and can generate 25 tons of thrust, making it one of the most powerful such engines ever made.

The Long March 9 launch vehicle is currently expected to have its test flight by 2030. It is comparable to NASA's iconic Saturn V or the larger versions of the American space agency's huge new deep-space rocket, theSpace Launch System.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: