Long March 12A
The Long March 12A, is a Chinese reusable medium-lift launch vehicle carrier rocket. The rocket has two stages and its first stage is designed to be reused after stage-recovery via propulsive landing. Both stages of the rocket will use methane and liquid oxygen for propulsion. The rocket is manufactured by Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.
The first flight occurred on 23 December 2025 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center with a successful orbital launch but the first-stage recovery was unsuccessful.
Rocket Characteristitcs
The project that eventually led to the current CZ-12A was initiated in 2021 under the codename "XLV21"; reusability was part of the original goals of the project although the initial design of the future rocket was more ambitious than the current Long March 12A.First stage
The Long March 12A's first stage hull is composed of 2219 aluminum alloy, a legacy from the standard Long March 12's first stage hull. However, unlike the CZ-12, the "A" variant employs CH4 and LOX for propulsion, and in a first for the Long March series of rockets, the CZ-12A's first-stage features seven units of the Longyun-70 reusable rocket engine, developed by the private company "Jiuzhou Yunjian"; the engines provide the rocket with a total of about 5,215 kilo-Newtons of thrust at liftoff. The first stage mounts four "T-tail" fins near the bottom to provide for flight stability and also includes four aluminum alloy landing legs each with a length of approximately 5.7 metres.Inter-stage
The rocket inter-stage includes four segmented 3D-printed fins and four single-drag element automatic control systems.Second stage
The second stage of the rocket features a single unit of the YF-209V reusable methane/LOX engine. The stage's hull is built using 2195 aluminum alloy. The stage also features two automatic flight control units.Rocket fairing
There are two possible fairing types for payload enclosure: one type with a diameter of 4.2 metres and a second type with a diameter of 5.2 metres.Overall characteristics
At liftoff, the rocker has a mass of about 437 tonnes and a liftoff thrust of approxiately 5,215 Newtons, Its height is about 69-70 metres. When the first-stage is set on a return-landing trajectory, the CZ-12A's LEO payload capacity is no less than 6 tonnes; its 500 km sun-synchronous orbit payload capacity is no less than 3 tonnes. The rocket's LEO payload capacity is no less than 9 tonnes when the first-stage is used in an expendable mode.Possible future developments
The current configuration of the rocket may be improved in the future. Improvements may include increasing the thrust of each Longyun engine to about 85 tonnes, and adding two additional units of these improved engines to the first-stage, thereby increasing the total liftoff thrust of the rocket by about 45 percent. It is unclear if such improvments will be implemented on the CZ-12A or on the planned Long March 12B carrier rocket.Development History
On June 23, 2024, SAST conducted its first VTVL test article for CZ-12A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, likely the same test pad used for iSpace's VTVL experiments. The test article featured three engines, the center of which would remain on during the entire flight. It also featured landing legs, which successfully deployed for the landing. The test lasted around 5 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of aroundOn January 19, 2025, SAST launched a VTVL test-stage to a height of to simulate the launch and recovery of the first stage of the future CZ-12A. The outcome of the test is unknown.
In August 2025, SAST conducted a static fire test of the upper stage of the CZ-12A at the Haiyang Oriental Spaceport