The new engines that will redefine space travel

In May 2025, a slender silver rocket lifted off from Jiuquan in northern China, its engines breathing methane and liquid oxygen instead of kerosene. As well as six satellites, the LandSpace Zhuque-2E carried a message: propulsion tech is evolving. 

Methane is cheaper and cleaner, and it does less damage to engines. When burned with liquid oxygen it produces less soot – so engines can be reignited many times without intensive maintenance. SpaceX and Relativity Space have both bet on it; now China’s private sector has joined in. LandSpace is working on a reusable version, Zhuque-3, built largely of stainless steel.

To get a little bit poetic about it, we think propulsion is no longer a matter of engineering alone; it’s leverage over our collective destiny. 

The physics of progress

Throughout the history of tech, new engines have enabled new leaps in exploration. Steam made oceans smaller and jet turbines shrank continents. Now, ion drives and photonic sails are enabling deeper exploration within our solar system and beyond. 

Researchers are testing lightsail propulsion – ultra-thin reflectors that ride on the pressure of light itself. The principle for this comes from ancient physics; photons carry momentum, and if you have enough of them they can push a spacecraft without fuel. It’s slow to start but once it gets moving it’s relentless – the kind of propulsion that could, one day, enable interstellar probes. 

At the same time, ion and electric thrusters (already steering satellites today) are scaling up. By accelerating charged particles using electromagnetic fields, they achieve far greater efficiency than chemical rockets (although at lower thrust). They’re ideal for deep space missions that have the scope for patience. 

Discovery accelerates the race 

Advances in propulsion happen in conjunction with wider space discoveries; some of which fuel the desire (and justification) for humanity to travel further. The James Webb Space Telescope, for example, is revealing aurorae on Neptune, and new exoplanets light-years away. The physics of reaching those worlds is now part of the space tech design brief. 

As ESA’s Juice mission and NASA’s Europa Clipper head for the icy moons of Jupiter, the demand for efficient, sustainable propulsion is getting louder. These spacecraft are ambassadors of both science and engineering – because they prove what’s possible when curiosity and calculation align.

Exploring space without fuel and flame 

Reusable rockets and photonic sails are very different things, but they’re being developed from a shared philosophy – to waste less, go further, and leave fewer scars behind. 

And the economics are shifting alongside the tech. We used to measure launch costs in tens of thousands of dollars per kilogram, but those costs are plummeting as a result of reusability. As a result, private companies are increasingly able to enter and scale in the space sector. LandSpace, for example, has signalled its intent to file for a domestic IPO in Shanghai to fund expansion. 

Space exploration is a light that burns across generations 

Every generation invents its own way to chase the horizon. These new engines are today’s move towards going further, and they stretch the idea of distance itself. 

Each ignition and each sail unfurling in sunlight hints at a promise that when it comes to the relationship between humans and space, we’re really just getting started. Space exploration today is driven by propulsion; not necessarily moving us faster, but moving us better and further.