China planning to build its own version of SpaceX’s Starship

SpaceX continues to be a font of inspiration for Chinese aerospace engineers.

At least one Chinese company is already working to create its own version of SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, which has launched more than 100 orbital missions this year. And it was revealed this week that China’s next-gen heavy lifter, the Long March 9, will look a lot like SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, at least in one of its planned configurations.

Engineers unveiled the latest Long March 9 design at the 15th China Air Show in Zhuhai. According to a presentation at the show, the big, two-stage rocket — which will launch astronauts to the moon, among other tasks — will come in at least three versions, one of which is fully reusable, just like Starship. 

The similarities don’t end there. The Long March 9’s upper stage sports maneuver-enhancing flaps in similar locations to those on the Starship upper stage, as Ars Technica’s Eric Berger noted.

Related: China’s Long March rocket family: History and photos

The Long March 9’s first-stage booster will be powered by 30 YF-215 engines, which run on liquid oxygen and liquid methane. Starship’s first stage, known as Super Heavy, has 33 of SpaceX’s new Raptor engines, which use the same propellants.

The Long March 9 — which is being developed by the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) — will stand 374 feet (114 meters) tall and be capable of lofting at least 150 tons of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO), according to the presentation, a brief summary of which you can find here. Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — is about 400 feet (122 m) tall, with a similar LEO payload capacity.

There is at least one big difference between the two megarockets, however: The Long March 9 is expected to fly for the first time in 2033, whereas Starship already has five test launches under its belt, with the sixth targeted for Nov. 18. 

SpaceX intends to have Starship up and running by September 2025, when NASA’s Artemis 3 moon mission is scheduled to lift off. Starship will be the crewed lander for Artemis 3, ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the lunar surface, if all goes to plan.

The newly unveiled Long March 9 design may not be set in stone, however, for China has changed its blueprint before.

Just a few years ago, for example, CALT was working on a three-stage, expendable Long March 9, which was expected to debut in 2030 or thereabouts.