On December 3, 2025, the Zhuque-3 Y1 carrier rocket developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket completed its flight mission according to procedures, and the second stage successfully entered the predetermined orbit. After the launch was completed yesterday, many people, whether in Moments or on self-media platforms, forwarded the news, clicked on it and read a lot, and read the comments under many public accounts and video accounts. Generally speaking, everyone still holds a relatively positive attitude, which is very gratifying. Let’s briefly talk about this matter.
First of all, let’s talk about the arrow fired yesterday. Zhuque 3 is a reusable liquid oxygen methane rocket self-developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace. It has a two-stage configuration. The polished rod does not have a booster. The diameter of the first and second stages are both 4.5 meters. The first and second stages are connected in parallel (Tianque 12A engine, self-developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace). One second stage is installed. The Tianque 15A vacuum engine (self-developed by Blue Arrow Aerospace) has a fairing diameter of 5.2 meters, a total arrow length of 66.1 meters, a take-off mass of approximately 560 tons, and a take-off thrust of 7542kN. The LEO transport capacity is not less than 18 tons in the recovery state of the flight area, and the number of reusable times is not less than 20 times.
In yesterday’s mission, although the recovery of the last sub-stage was unsuccessful, the rocket successfully entered orbit. The rocket take-off, primary and secondary separation, secondary engine starting, fairing separation, secondary engine shutdown, secondary taxiing, secondary engine secondary starting, etc. were all completed as planned. This is still very important for Blue Arrow Aerospace. In July this year, Shanghai Yuanxin conducted the 2025 launch vehicle service During the service procurement project bidding, Blue Arrow Aerospace, Tianbing Technology, and China Science and Technology Aerospace received the order for Package 2 (three one-rocket 18-star launch services, service/delivery period from the date of contract signing to March 2026). According to the bidding requirements, the bidding unit must promise to complete the first flight mission of the bid rocket model before the end of December this year. This successful orbit, Blue Arrow Aerospace’s promise has basically been fulfilled.
Objectively speaking, the results of this launch mission were pretty good, and everyone’s response was also pretty good. After all, it was the first launch of a medium-to-large liquid oxygen methane commercial rocket in China. In fact, for private rocket companies, including domestic and foreign companies, the only companies that have successfully achieved liquid rocket launches are Blue Arrow Aerospace, Tianbing Technology, SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, Astra, Firefly Aerospace, and Blue Origin. Let’s not talk about Blue Arrow Aerospace and Tianbing Technology. The remaining companies are all American. Among the companies in the United States, SpaceX’s Falcon 1 failed in the first three launches, but Falcon 9 succeeded in its first flight. This fact has to be admitted. Musk is indeed a ruthless person. When it came to the Falcon Heavy, the first flight was successful and the booster was successfully recovered, but the first sub-stage was not recovered successfully. By the second time, all were successful, not to mention the starship, which is not on the same level. Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket failed to successfully reach orbit on its first flight (and was not recovered). Virgin Orbit’s Launcher 1 failed its first flight. Astra’s Rocket 3 exploded on its first flight and failed three times in succession. Firefly Aerospace’s Firefly-Alpha failed the first time, and the second time it entered orbit was lower than the planned orbit. It was only the third time that it was considered a complete success. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket successfully made its first flight, but also failed to recover. Compared with these foreign companies, the results this time are not bad.
The mission of Blue Arrow Aerospace has been completed, and the pressure should have been passed on to other partners. The first one should be the Eighth Institute. The Eighth Institute’s Long March 12A was also put into orbit + recovered. Blue Arrow Aerospace has already made a layout here. Although the recovery was not successful, the rocket was successfully put into orbit. The Eighth Institute It should not be worse than this result. After all, it is the national team, followed by Tianbing Technology and China Aerospace. Both of them also took orders from Shanghai Yuanxin and promised to complete the first flight of the bid model before the end of December this year. Both of these two companies are not recycling for the first flight, so we can only see whether the first flight is successful. In addition to these three companies, Star Glory and Jian Yuan Technology, both of which also make liquid oxygen methane rockets, especially Jian Yuan Technology, which is also “stainless steel + liquid oxygen methane”, should also be under pressure, and Yushi Space, whose core technologies include stainless steel rocket body structure, liquid oxygen methane power system and innovative “chopsticks” “There should also be pressure on the capture arm recovery technology. This company was only established last year, so I won’t go into details. There is also Eastern Space. Although both Gravity 1 launches have been completed, but for subsequent Starnet and Yuanxin missions, it should still depend on Gravity 2. The first flight of Gravity 2 should not be too late.
Regarding this launch, there is another thought. The core story logic of the current rocket market is still the networking of two giant constellations, the “GW” constellation and the “G60” constellation. But for private rocket companies, how big is the overall market size really under this narrative framework?The commercial rockets industry is very special. In addition to commercial attributes, it also has other attributes. Can the future competition for market share really be considered completely based on pure market logic? There should be a question mark here. In this case, as long as the first mover does not make big mistakes, it should still have a first-mover advantage. Especially for Blue Arrow Aerospace, it has three core advantages. The first is its supply chain system capabilities. On April 15 this year, Blue Arrow Aerospace’s 100th “Tianque” series liquid oxygen methane rocket engine rolled off the production line. They also issued a special news, which shows that their engine production capacity has increased, and Blue Arrow Aerospace has saved up to 778% of the supply chain through this launch. Eight; the second is their work station. Zhuque 3 has its own launch station in Jiuquan, which is very important. The dedicated launch station can make the mission scheduling more flexible and more autonomous; the third is the team. Through this mission, Blue Arrow Aerospace has already built up a team. He already has a team that has completed the entire process of medium and large liquid oxygen methane rockets from development to launch. Efficient product production capacity
Another positive significance of this mission is that we have more and more rockets that can be used to undertake the construction of giant satellite Internet constellations. This is very important. Coupled with the launch stations we continue to build, as mentioned in yesterday’s article, our networking capabilities will become stronger and stronger.
