China's Long March-12A rocket reaches orbit on maiden flight

China's Long March-12A Y1 carrier rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone and completed its maiden flight on Tuesday morning, with its second stage successfully entering the preset orbit. However, the recovery of its first stage did not achieve the expected results, and the specific reasons are currently under further investigation and analysis .

As China's second liquid oxygen-methane carrier rocket that attempted recovery on its maiden flight, the Long March-12A Y1 is designed with the core feature of "first-stage reuse." The rocket measures approximately 70.4 meters in length and has a launch mass of about 437 tonnes, with both the first and second stages having a diameter of 3.8 meters, and a payload fairing diameter of 4.2 meters.

Although the mission did not achieve the planned first-stage recovery, it obtained critical engineering data on the rocket's actual flight conditions, laying an important foundation for subsequent launches. The development team will promptly conduct a comprehensive review, make every effort to identify the cause of the failure, continuously optimize the recovery scheme and advance the verification of reusability.