The TQ-12 (, lit. ''Sky Lark 12'') is a

gas-generator cycle The gas-generator cycle is a power cycle of a pumped liquid bipropellant rocket engine. Part of the unburned propellant is burned in a gas generator (or preburner) and the resulting hot gas is used to power the propellant pumps before being exhau ...

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...

burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen under development by

Landspace LandSpace Technology Corporation (doing business as LandSpace) is a Chinese private space launch provider based in Beijing. It was founded in 2015 by Zhang Changwu. LandSpace developed its first launch vehicle Zhuque-1, powered by solid-propel ...

. TQ-12 is the first Chinese liquid rocket engine developed with private funding. The engine has been designed to produce of thrust at sea level.

History

The engine passed its first power pack test including the

turbopump A turbopump is a propellant pump with two main components: a rotodynamic pump and a driving gas turbine, usually both mounted on the same shaft, or sometimes geared together. They were initially developed in Germany in the early 1940s. The purpos ...

, valves, ignition components, and the

gas generator A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a ...

at a LandSpace facility in

Huzhou Huzhou (, ; Huzhounese: ''ghou² cieu¹'') is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province (Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain, China). Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzhou to the south, and the provinc ...

on March 25, 2019. The engine's first full assembly was delivered in May 2019, and a hot fire test was successfully conducted the same month. The engine passed its first 200 seconds variable thrust test on October 26, 2019. Series of 400s hot fire tests were conducted in January 2021 and the first-stage engine assembly for LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket was completed in February 2021. It consists of four TQ-12 engines providing a takeoff thrust of 268 tons. 37 TQ-12 family engines have been built by LandSpace as of July 31, 2022, with a hot fire test duration of more than 20,000 seconds. A record-breaking 3357 seconds of hot firing time were accumulated by one engine after it was started 11 times. In August 2022, Landspace successfully tested the improved TQ-12A. Compared with the original TQ-12, the engine thrust is increased by 9%, the specific impulse is increased by 40 m/s, and the weight is reduced by 100kg. On December 14, 2022, Zhuque-2 completed its maiden flight. Four TQ-12 engines powered the first stage, which performed normally during the flight. However, the TQ-11 vernier engines used in the second stage failed, and the rocket was lost.

References

Rocket engines of China Rocket engines using methane propellant Rocket engines using the gas-generator cycle {{Rocket-stub