The Long March 9 super heavy-lift rocket made an appearance at a major airshow recently—and looks awfully familiar.
When Chinese space officials unveiled the design for the country's first super heavy-lift rocket nearly a decade ago, it looked like a fairly conventional booster. The rocket was fully expendable, with three stages and solid motors strapped onto its sides. Since then, China has been revising the design of this rocket, named Long March 9, in response to the development of reusable rockets by SpaceX. As of two years ago, China had recalibrated the design to have a reusable first stage.
Both the state-run rocket agency and the company's private industries are copying the best practices of SpaceX as they seek to catch up. At this point, China's launch industry is basically hanging out in the SpaceX waiting room to see which ideas it should swipe next. The Real Race Begins to Unfold It is, of course, not new that the Chinese industry seeks to copy—and in some cases, steal—ideas from Western competitors.
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