Over the last decade or so China has been developing new launch vehicles for its growing space ambitions, and in early November will perform the first flight of the largest of the series - the heavy-lift Long March 5 - which will be used to launch a space station.

These new rockets are more powerful, use cleaner and cheaper fuel, and are modularised meaning a reduction preparation time, risk and cost when compared with the currently used, ageing rockets.

The Long March 7, successfully launched for the first time in June from a new coastal launch centre, will eventually replace the Long March 3B, used for lifting large communications satellites high into geosynchronous orbit and the country's robotic lunar exploration missions.

Long March 5 will also allow the country to attempt its first independent interplanetary mission - to Mars in 2020 - and launch the Chang'e-5 probe late next year to collect samples from the Moon and return them to Earth.

Despite these wide-ranging new capabilities, there are gaps.

China is now also working a Long March 8, according to Lei Fanpei, chairman of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

CASC is the main contractor for China's space program, charged with the research, design, manufacture and launch of spacecraft and systems, including launch vehicles.

Lei says the rocket would boost carrying capacity for launching satellites to Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and polar orbits, which currently stands at around two tonnes, and also provide commercial possibilities.

"We will develop this rocket to deal with commercial launch missions. Its [design] principle is 'low cost and commercially competitive'. It is still under discussion. Its carrying capacity is about 3.5 tons on the sun-synchronous orbit," Lei told CCTV.

Satellites regularly put into SSO, which confers advantages for observations in some wavelengths, include weather, remote sensing and spy satellites.

China has also recently utilised SSO for its China's DAMPE dark matter probe and Quantum Science Satellite space science missions.

Long March to the Moon

Lei also stated that CASC is working on the necessary technical breakthroughs for the Long March 9, which would boost upwards of 100 tons of carrying capacity to low-Earth orbit.

The super-heavy lift rocket, which would be similar in capability to the Saturn V that took US astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 70s, would allow China to attempt its own crewed lunar landings.

"The technical breakthrough is expected to be achieved by 2019. The preliminary discussion shows that its carrying capacity is about 100 tonnes to 130 tonnes on near-earth orbit to be able to probe farther planets and carry people to moon for scientific research," Lei said.

Long March 9 is expected to be nearly 10 metres in diameter, over 100 metres tall, and have a mass of 3,000 tonnes, rivalling the NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), the heaviest configuration of which is expected to fly in the early 2020s.

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) and the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology (AAPT) under CASC also recently successfully performed tests on a kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket engine capable of producing the thrust necessary to power the Long March 9.

Long March 9 is still in the very early stages of development, and not expected to make its maiden flight until around 2030. The first major use could be a Mars sample return, which China has slated for 2030.

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