'Heavenly Dragon 3', TL-3) is a medium-lift orbital launch vehicle developed by the Chinese private aerospace manufacturer Space Pioneer.
It is designed to be partially reusable, with the first stage capable of performing an autonomous vertical landing and being reused up to 10 times.
Notably, the single engine operating time during the test surpassed the planned flight duration by a factor of 6.
[8] On June 30, 2024, a Tianlong-3 first stage detached from its stand during a static fire test due to a structural failure, resulting in an unintentional liftoff.
[12] A patent issued in 2023 for the test stand, previously used for Tianlong-2, describes a maximum load-bearing capacity of 600 tonnes-force (5.9 MN; 1,300,000 lbf).
[13]: 9 Space Pioneer stated that the nine-engine first stage had reached a thrust of 820 tonnes-force (8.0 MN; 1,800,000 lbf) prior to failure with 200 tonnes (440,000 lb) of fuel remaining, suggesting the partially-fueled first stage's net thrust may have exceeded the test stand's designed capacity.