What China just did with SpaceX Starship Copy Shocked whole industry!!!

This is insane. China has just released a diagram illustrating the launch sequence and stage separation process of a brand new rocket and it's sparking controversy because it looks 99% identical to SpaceX Starship. At this point, it's no longer inspired by. It's a direct copy. So, how far has this copy actually come? And can it really compete with Elon Musk's rocket? Let's find out in today's episode of Alpha Tech. China, a country of 1.4 4 billion people and the world's second largest economy right behind the United States is famously known for a mindset of studying an idea and then doing it better. This applies to almost every industry. And as the space market heats up, it's become a piece of cake they clearly want a share of. Because of that, a private space company like SpaceX, the company behind the most powerful rockets ever built, naturally ended up in their sights. Since around 2020, a series of controversial Chinese rockets have appeared, mainly because they look way too similar to Falcon 9. The most well-known example is Juk 3, developed by the private company Landspace. In some ways, its design is arguably even smarter than the original. They chose stainless steel for the rocket's outer structure, an extremely strong material that SpaceX itself uses for Starship. Fuel-wise, Juk3 also runs on methyloxs, a very clean propellant that leaves almost no residue inside the engines. With nine engines and grid fins, Juk3 honestly looks like an upgraded version of Falcon 9. On its first test flight, it successfully delivered its payload to orbit, but lost control during landing, slammed into the ground, and exploded. Elon Musk even publicly praised this copy, saying it could surpass Falcon 9 within 5 years. He didn't seem worried at all, believing that time frame was more than enough for Starship to be fully developed and operational, a vehicle that would be more powerful, cheaper, and up to five times more efficient than Falcon 9. What he likely didn't expect, though, was that China had already begun aggressively copying Starship itself. Just a few days ago, a newly founded startup called Beijing Ling Hang Sing Jian Technology unveiled a rocket concept named Jing Joe 1, a fully reusable launch vehicle. This marks yet another attempt by China's private space sector to copy SpaceX's Starship model. At the moment, the project is still at a very early stage. It exists purely as a theoretical concept, backed only by 3D renders and visual mock-ups. There's been no publicly confirmed hardware testing, no engine tests, nothing tangible yet. But here's the part that really stands out. They're aiming for a first test flight in 2027. Seriously, Starship took SpaceX nearly 6 years to evolve from a flying stainless steel tank into the largest rocket ever built. And now, this team is suggesting they can go from zero to a first flight in just 1 to 2 years. Even experts inside China are calling that timeline unrealistic, if not outright fantasy. In terms of specifications, Jingjo 1 is basically being pitched as a mini starship. Based on the renders, it's estimated to stand around 50 to 60 m tall, which is significantly smaller than Starship version 3, towering at 124.4 meters. The vehicle is designed with a stainless steel body to handle the heat of atmospheric re-entry. It follows a two-stage architecture. The first stage booster is shown with landing legs and grid fins for vertical recovery, while the second stage is also intended to land vertically. They even claim the booster could land on a drone ship. However, in some of the concept images, the booster doesn't have landing legs at all, a clear design contradiction right from the start. As for performance, the projected payload capacity is only about 15 tons to polar orbit, making it suitable mainly for small missions like satellite launches or technology demonstrations. The rocket is expected to run on methyloxs, liquid methane, and liquid oxygen, a clean propellant choice that supports higher reusability. Yes, it sounds interesting, but in reality, it poses no real threat to SpaceX's Starship. Compared to the real thing, this concept can't even outperform Falcon 9, let alone Starship. All right, moving on. Shingjo One isn't the only Chinese project trying to copy Starship. There's another company with the same ambition, FST Space. They're developing a reusable rocket called Cidion 1, aimed at competing in the lowcost satellite launch market. And yes, it definitely looks Starship inspired. TDN1 is powered by a Methylox engine using a full flow stage combustion cycle rated at 175 tons of thrust. That's about 105 tons less than SpaceX's upcoming Raptor 3. On the plus side, its sea level specific impulse is quoted at 320 seconds, roughly in the same ballpark as Raptor 3. The engine itself is about 2.8 m tall and weighs 1.9 tons, still significantly behind SpaceX's engines overall. According to the company's published road map, early 2025 was packed with milestones. a successful solid fuel engine hot fire test in March. Integration and testing of liquid oxygen kerosene engines in May and June. Large-scale development and prototype assembly in July and August, followed by a planned first test flight of KDN1 in September 2025, consistent with images of a small-scale combustion chamber test recorded on September 21st, 2025. Based on those images, they were supposedly aiming for a flight in October this year, but so far there's been complete silence. That strongly suggests copying Starship turned out to be far more complicated than expected, and they may already be hitting a wall. With a rocket standing about 19.1 m tall, a 3.2 2 m diameter and 175 tons of total thrust. FST Space is clearly targeting a compact launch system inspired by modern reusability concepts, hoping to grab a slice of the rapidly growing low Earth orbit satellite market. As for the dream of making humanity a multilanet species, forget it. At this point, they're not even guaranteed to launch satellites successfully, let alone change the future of human space flight. Now, if we're talking about the Chinese rocket that comes closest to actually competing with Starship, that title probably goes to Long March 9. And the resemblance is almost shocking. It looks like a nearcarbon copy of SpaceX's Starship. You could call it the latest case of Dja Vu in the space race. Unveiled at an air show in Juai, the latest version of Long March 9 represents a major departure from its original design, which featured three stages and solid fuel boosters. Instead, China's space agency has shifted to a two-stage configuration, closely mirroring SpaceX's fully reusable Starship system. It seems China has decided that if it truly wants to reach the stars, it might as well learn from what already works. The new Long March 9 features a fully reusable first stage powered by 30 YF25 in engines. These engines burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen, much like SpaceX's Raptor engines. Each YF215 produces around 200 tons of thrust, slightly less than the roughly 280 tons generated by a single Raptor. But the similarities don't stop there. Just like Starship Superheavy booster, the first stage of Long March 9 is designed for reusability. China's rocket even includes a second stage that looks almost identical to Starship's upper stage, complete with similar aerodynamic flaps placed in nearly the same positions. The goal of this redesign is clear, to compete with SpaceX's reusable launch technology, which has set a new benchmark for the entire industry. While China's space program is advancing rapidly, it still lags behind when it comes to fully reusable rockets. That said, the latest Long Mar redesign shows China isn't just trying to catch up. It's actively studying SpaceX's playbook. Long March 9 is currently scheduled for its first flight in 2033, about eight years from now. A lot can change between now and then, but the trend is obvious. By the time that happens, Starship may already be busy flying moon and Mars missions, while the CNSA could still be stuck debugging Long Mar. In the end, copying Starship might be impressive, but it still means they'll always be one step behind. But have you ever wondered why China is so eager to copy Starship even though it's still in the testing phase? Especially early on when Starship suffered multiple technical failures and even exploded midair in several flights. The answer mostly comes down to ambitious geopolitical and economic strategy. China wants to rapidly catch up with and eventually surpass US dominance in commercial space flight. They've already caught up in the space station arena, but when it comes to the satellite launch market, they're still far behind. SpaceX alone accounts for over 90% of global orbital launch mass, and that's just with Falcon 9. Once Starship becomes operational, that number could jump five, even 10 times higher. On top of that, SpaceX has proven that reusability can slash launch costs to under $10 million per flight, opening the door to what many call the democratization of space. But this is the part that really matters. For 10,000 generations, our ancestors watched a red star flare and wander across the sky in chaotic motion. Within living memory, rapid advances in technology transformed that star into a world, a distant twin of Earth. Long ago, rivers once fed lakes and oceans there. And perhaps life itself once thrived in pools of water that have long since dried up. Humanity has always dreamed of distant shores, alien landscapes, and expansion across an endless frontier. And now, for the first time, Mars is within our reach. And so far, there is only one vehicle capable of making that happen. Starship. Mars lies roughly 100 million miles from Earth, which means we'll need an enormous rocket. ideally thousands of them. SpaceX's Starship was built for this single purpose, carrying the hopes and dreams of the only known conscious species a top a pillar of fire, pushing open the sky so that countless future generations can spread outward across the universe. But how does Starship actually get there? Traveling from Earth to Mars requires several distinct steps. A short but violent launch into Earth orbit, followed by a long, quiet cruise toward the red planet, and finally a short yet intense plunge back through the atmosphere and a hard landing on the surface. As Robert A. Heinline once said, "Once you get to Earth orbit, you're halfway to anywhere in the solar system." Rocket launches are so dramatic because they must generate enough power to overcome the gravity of the entire Earth. In about 10 minutes, the rocket accelerates its payload to an astonishing 17,000 mph. Once in orbit, that payload can remain there indefinitely, free from Earth's atmosphere and its drag. But low Earth orbit sits just beyond Earth's atmosphere. To reach Mars, we need an additional push to fully escape Earth's gravity. At certain times, Mars is positioned just right, and a relatively small extra burn can place Starship onto a trajectory that about eight months later results in an encounter with Mars. This is a well- tested, proven method, the same approach used by our Mars orbiters, landers, rovers, and even the Brave Mars helicopters. These launch windows open for about 8 weeks every 2 years, more precisely, every 2.14 years following the Earth Mars Senotic cycle.