The world might see China's next-generation carrier rockets flying as early as next year.
The country's rockets will feature non-polluting propellants, a top space scientist shared on Monday.
China's newest carrier rockets will only either be fueled by liquid oxygen and diesel or liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The breakthrough carriers will be operating within the next two years.
The rockets will include the heavy Long March-5 and the smaller Long March-7, as shared by Lei Fanpei to Xinhua. Fanpei is the chairman of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which is the country's main contractor for the country's space program.
The chairman added that it will take 15 years for an overall upgrading to take place.
In particular, the Long March-5 has a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbits. In other words, it has the capacity of 14 tonnes for geostationary transfer orbit. This is quite a breakthrough since it has improved its original capacity doubly. It is considered one of the serious competitors to the U.S. Delta-4H.
On the other hand, the Long March-7 possesses the capacity of 13.5 tonnes to low Earth orbit or 5.5 tonnes to sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 700 kilometers. The country plans to make use of it to carry cargo craft for the planned space station. It would start flying in 2015.
China is also set to build a much bigger carrier, the Long March-9.
"We are discussing the technological feasibility and requirements of the Long March-9 and research on the solutions to some technical difficulties has started," shared Li Tongyu, who is currently serving as the head of aerospace products at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.