(LEFT) SpaceX launched its fourth Starship test flight from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, in June 2024; (RIGHT) China’s Long March 9 modified rocket design recently unveiled at Zhuhai. Credit: SpaceX.

When Chinese space officials unveiled the design for the country's first super heavy lift rocket nearly a decade ago, it looked like a fairly conventional booster. The rocket was fully expendable, with three stages and solid motors strapped onto its sides.

Starship’s Super Heavy booster, which forms the first stage of the world’s biggest rocket, was rolled out less than two weeks after SpaceX’s last successful test flight that saw the rocket caught by the launch tower’s “chopsticks” for the first time.

The Long March 9 super heavy-lift rocket made an appearance at a major airshow recently—and looks awfully familiar.

The startup, Cosmoleap, also aims to build a rocket larger than Starship, the world's most powerful launch system.