Kinetica 2
orbital launch vehicle by CAS Space
Kinetica 2 (Chinese: 力箭二号; pinyin: Lìjiàn èr hào; lit. 'Powerful Rocket-2', also known as Lijian-2, LJ-2) is a Chinese medium-lift orbital launch vehicle developed by CAS Space.
Design
Kinetica 2 uses two liquid-propellant rocket stages. In its initial configuration, first stage propulsion uses a modular rocket design with three identical rockets strapped together side-by-side. It is capable of lifting 12 t (12 long tons; 13 short tons) to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 8.0 t (7.9 long tons; 8.8 short tons) to a 500 km (310 mi) Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). In plans for the first stage and booster recovery by 2027.
History
CAS Space conducted ground tests for the 2-stage Kinetica 2 in 2025. Its maiden flight was conducted from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) on 30 March 2026, sending two satellites and prototype cargo vessel Qingzhou for the Chinese Space Station into a SSO orbit.
Heavy variant
A more powerful version of Kinetica 2 would have four (rather than two) boosters around the center core. In an IPO filing for trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, CAS Space has indicated the first flight of the Kinetica 2 Heavy is planned for 2028.
“Kinetica 2” enters the record as orbital launch vehicle by CAS Space. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kinetica, orbital and launch can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kinetica 2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.