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Launch Vehicles
Vehicle family profile

Tianlong-3

天龙三号

Family-level launch record combining canonical variants, historical missions, public cadence forecasts, and available payload performance specs.

Space Pioneer (Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd.)Active
Admin
Variants
1
Canonical variants linked to this family.
Historical missions
1
Missions in the public mission table with actual launch dates.
Peak listed capacity
17,000 kg
Maximum payload capacity across listed variants and orbits.

Launch Cadence

Historical missions are grouped by actual launch year. Forecast cadence uses family-level launch-rate rows.

YearHistorical missionsForecast launches
202611
202702
202803
202904
203005
203106
203208
203308
203408
203508
203608
203708
203808
203908
204008
204101

Forecast Location Split

1 launch location represented.

Performance Specs

Payload capacity by variant and target orbit when structured capacity rows are available.

VariantOrbitCapacityAltitudeInclinationSource
Tianlong-3
LEO17,000 kgUnknownUnknownSpaceNews China 2025 launcher preview
Tianlong-3
SSO14,000 kgUnknownUnknownSuzhou government Tianlong-3 profile

Recent Missions

Latest launched missions using variants in this family.

MissionVariantLaunch
Launch 2026-F05
Tianlong-3
Apr 3, 2026

Forecasted Missions

Upcoming mission rows with announced launch timing.

MissionVariantAnnounced

No forecasted missions

No upcoming announced mission rows are linked to this vehicle family.

Variants

Canonical variants rolled up into this launch vehicle family.

VariantStagesMissionsStatus
Tianlong-3
Not stated1Active
YearLocationLaunchesConfidenceBasis
2026Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center125%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2027Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center225%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2028Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center325%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2029Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center430%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2030Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center530%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2031Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center630%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2032Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2033Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2034Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2035Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2036Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2037Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2038Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2039Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2040Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center835%Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.
2041Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center125%Catalog-completeness placeholder for active Tianlong-3 family; not used by latest forecast capacity snapshot.
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2026 · 25% confidence
1

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2027 · 25% confidence
2

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2028 · 25% confidence
3

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2029 · 30% confidence
4

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2030 · 30% confidence
5

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2031 · 30% confidence
6

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2032 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2033 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2034 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2035 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2036 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
2037 · 35% confidence
8

Manual 2026-06-06 review: Tianlong-3 is a Falcon-9-class commercial launcher with early anomaly risk but should ramp if it enters operations.

Track
Mentions
233
All verified mentions of this launch vehicle family in source documents.
0.0-5.0
Actions

Tianlong-3’s claimed payload capacity is 17,000 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit when expendable.

CapabilityValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Tianlong-3’s first flight was the first mission for Tianlong-3 and the second mission for Space Pioneer’s Tianlong series.

Plan
Page3of12
Relationships
Value 3.4
Apr 3, 2026
Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Tianlong-3 experienced fuel leaks during its maiden launch.

GeneralCapabilityPlanValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026Well there were certainly fuel leaks, but this seems to be in much better control even afterward than, uh, Starship Flight 1 or Alpha Flight 1 all the way to around MECO. Hmm…

Xiamen Tianwei Technology and Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications collaborated on the TW-4 precise remote sensing satellite carried on Tianlong-3’s first flight.

RelationshipsGeneralValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 is designed to lift 17 tonnes to low Earth orbit.

CapabilityValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026After arriving in orbit on try 1 (very rare for private LSPs, Orbital Sciences is the only one came to mind!), they have not flown Tianlong-2 again for now (though an upgraded version is coming soon w/ new rocket engines, the Tianlong-2G). That’s because they are building this:

Tianlong-3’s second stage arrived at Haiyang for a static fire test.

PlanCapabilityValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026…and made use of a newly built “maritime test firing platform” at Shandong’s Haiyang Spaceport, perhaps the most underrated spaceport in the world right now, to do test firings. Here’s the single engine powered TL-3 2nd stage before its static fire:

The Tianlong-3 rocket reappeared after almost a year of silence.

GeneralPlanValue 2.0Apr 3, 2026In other countries, such big oopsies just several km from a large city would have probably killed a company. But this is China, and especially for such a resilient company as Space Pioneer, they are not giving up. Far from it. They built up another rocket a year ago:

Tianlong-3’s first flight was China’s 19th launch attempt in 2026.

PlanGeneralValue 2.3Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 Y1 first stage was at a test site on April 3, 2026.

GeneralPlanCapabilityValue 3.5Apr 3, 2026The Tianlong-3 is officially (yes, they explicitly wrote that in their webpage) inspired by none other than *the* Falcon 9, & designed for same reason F9 flew today: LEO comsat constellations. At 17 tonnes to LEO, it & similar rockets are aiming filling big Chinese launch holes.

Tianlong-3’s first stage is powered by nine TH-12 engines with a combined thrust of 820 tons.

CapabilityValue 4.2Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Tianlong-3’s first-stage booster is designed to land vertically on a landing pad or drone ship after relighting between one and three engines.

CapabilityPlanValue 3.5Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 is inspired by SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

GeneralCapabilityValue 2.3Apr 3, 2026The Tianlong-3 is officially (yes, they explicitly wrote that in their webpage) inspired by none other than *the* Falcon 9, & designed for same reason F9 flew today: LEO comsat constellations. At 17 tonnes to LEO, it & similar rockets are aiming filling big Chinese launch holes.

Tianlong-3 was three hours from liftoff on April 3, 2026.

PlanGeneralValue 3.0Apr 3, 2026RT by @raz_liu: It is launch day for Tianlong-3, with T-3h until liftoff. Wishing Space Pioneer the best of luck and a successful launch! pic.

Tianlong-3 had been vertical on the JSLC launch pad multiple times since late 2025.

PlanValue 3.4Apr 3, 2026They haven’t said much of their launch campaign since, but the Tianlong-3 was spotted vertical at the JSLC pad many times since late last year. After months of rumors, it looks like they are finally ready to send it to LEO in half an hour from now.

Tianlong-3 was expected to launch to low Earth orbit within half an hour on Apr. 3, 2026.

PlanGeneralValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026They haven’t said much of their launch campaign since, but the Tianlong-3 was spotted vertical at the JSLC pad many times since late last year. After months of rumors, it looks like they are finally ready to send it to LEO in half an hour from now.

Tianlong-3’s second stage is powered by a single vacuum-optimized TH-12 engine.

CapabilityValue 4.0Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Tianlong-3 attempted to fly toward sun-synchronous orbit on its first flight.

PlanCapabilityValue 2.0Apr 3, 2026Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Fails During Maiden Flight From Jiuquan [Tianlong-3 Y1]

Tianlong-3’s maiden launch was 5 minutes away at the time of the post.

PlanGeneralValue 3.0Apr 3, 2026T-5min of the Tianlong-3's maiden launch / orbital

Tianlong-3 appeared to remain under better control after the fuel leaks than Starship Flight 1 or Alpha Flight 1 up to MECO.

CapabilityGeneralValue 2.8Apr 3, 2026Well there were certainly fuel leaks, but this seems to be in much better control even afterward than, uh, Starship Flight 1 or Alpha Flight 1 all the way to around MECO. Hmm…

Tianlong-3 is designed for low-Earth-orbit communications satellite constellations.

CapabilityGeneralValue 3.0Apr 3, 2026The Tianlong-3 is officially (yes, they explicitly wrote that in their webpage) inspired by none other than *the* Falcon 9, & designed for same reason F9 flew today: LEO comsat constellations. At 17 tonnes to LEO, it & similar rockets are aiming filling big Chinese launch holes.