China Developing New Rocket Engines

"China is advancing its space capabilities by developing staged
combustion, an engine technology that is likely to offer greater
performance for the Long March 6 and 7, two of a family of launchers
that the country will field around the middle of the decade.

The smaller of the two, the Long March 6, may be the first to go into
service, beating the flagship third member of the family, the Long
March 5 heavy launcher."

See:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...&channel=space

On 1/11/2011 8:45 AM, wrote:
"China is advancing its space capabilities by developing staged
combustion, an engine technology that is likely to offer greater
performance for the Long March 6 and 7, two of a family of launchers
that the country will field around the middle of the decade.

It's surprising it took them this long to develop that technology.
The Soviet Union was using that technology on the Proton rocket of 1965
vintage.