Chinese rocket engine designers have started to develop next-generation engines that will propel the nation's future super-heavy rocket, which is tentatively called Long March 9, according to a senior rocket scientist.

"Engineers at my academy are researching and developing a 500-ton-thrust liquid oxygen/kerosene engine and a 200-ton-thrust liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine that will be used on the future heavy-lift rocket," Tan Yonghua, president of the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology and a national lawmaker, told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual session of the top legislature.

The engines will together give the Long March 9 a launch weight of 3,000 tons and a maximum payload of 130 tons to the low Earth orbit, which is powerful enough to fulfill a manned mission to the moon, he said.