China LandSpace's methane-powered rocket sends satellites into orbit -state media

BEIJING, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A rocket developed by LandSpace Technology on Saturday launched three satellites into orbit, state media said, a milestone in the Chinese private rocket startup's mission to test whether its vehicle using methane and liquid oxygen is ready for commercial liftoffs.

LandSpace's Zhuque-2 Y-3 blasted off at 7:39 a.m. Dec. 9(11:39 p.m. Dec.8 GMT) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Inner Mongolia region, state television CCTV said, without providing details on the types and overall weight of the satellites it lifted.

The success could boost investors' confidence in methane as a potential rocket fuel, which is deemed able to help slash costs and support reusable rockets in a cleaner and more efficient way.

Zhuque-2 Y-3 was the third of LandSpace's test rockets for Zhuque-2, and the first that succeeded in lifting satellites.

A second attempt, without real satellites, in July made LandSpace the world's first company to launch methane-liquid oxygen rocket, ahead of U.S. rivals including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

LandSpace had said the first launch last December failed, without specifying whether the test rocket, Zhuque-2 Y-1, carried any satellite payloads.

The eight-year-old startup said earlier it plans to provide clients with about three launches in 2024 and double that number in 2025.

Several private Chinese rocket startups have lined up test or commercial launches, aiming to preparing their products for the increasing demand in China's expanding commercial space industry, amid growing competition to form a constellation of satellites as an alternative to Musk's Starlink.

OrienSpace said it has scheduled the debut launch of its solid-fuel rocket, Gravity-1, in December. Deep Blue Aerospace, which is developing a reusable kerosene-fuelled rocket, aims to complete next year its first test of launching the Nebula-1 rocket to orbit and recovering it.

Galactic Energy on Tuesday launched its solid-propellant rocket Ceres-1 with two satellites into orbit, after a failure in September and a series of successful launches earlier. (Reporting by Ella Cao, Roxanne Liu and Bernard Orr; Editing by Josie Kao and Grant McCool)