ZQ-2E Y5

ZQ-2E Y5 is the fifth flight unit of LandSpace's improved Zhuque-2 carrier rocket, a two-stage cryogenic liquid launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen and methane . Standing 55.9 meters tall with a 3.35-meter diameter and 4.2-meter payload fairing, it lifts off at 267 tons with 338 tons of thrust from four TQ-12A engines on its first stage, while the second stage runs a single TQ-15A vacuum engine . On May 14, 2026, it completed a successful flight test from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone, delivering a 2.8-ton customized test payload to a 900-kilometer orbit—a mission that demonstrated its capacity for heavy-payload and multi-satellite constellation deployments .

The Y5 iteration introduced several upgrades over earlier variants: a roughly 15% increase in propellant capacity through extended first-stage tanks and full subcooling, structural weight reduction measures, and an upgraded TQ-12A engine with 108 kN more thrust per unit plus self-correcting thrust vectoring . It also pioneered a domestic first in private spaceflight with a three-ignition second-stage scheme combining tank-pressure ignition with high-orbit deorbit capability, alongside online engine fault diagnosis and autonomous correction . The mission achieved a compressed launch preparation cycle of 13 days and 1.5 hours for pre-launch fueling . As of mid-2026, the ZQ-2E series offers 4 tons to 500 km sun-synchronous orbit or 6 tons to low Earth orbit, positioning it as China's active medium-lift liquid oxygen-methane workhorse and a complement to the forthcoming reusable Zhuque-3 .