China successfully recovered an orbital-class rocket booster on land for the first time on Wednesday, marking a major milestone in its push to narrow the gap with SpaceX in reusable launch technology.
LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone in Gansu on Aug. 19, sending a satellite into orbit before its first-stage booster returned to Earth and landed vertically.
The achievement moves China closer to the reusable-launch model pioneered by SpaceX, which has routinely recovered and reflown Falcon 9 boosters since 2017.
Reusability has helped SpaceX cut launch costs, increase flight frequency and support the rapid deployment of its Starlink constellation.
LandSpace is one of China’s leading commercial rocket startups. In 2023, it became the first company to launch a methane-fueled rocket into orbit.
Its Zhuque-3 is designed as a reusable liquid-oxygen methane rocket, with large satellite constellation deployment among its target use cases.
The successful landing shifts the next test from recovery to actual reuse.
LandSpace will now need to show that recovered boosters can be refurbished quickly, reflown reliably and operated at materially lower cost.
That is where SpaceX still holds a substantial lead after years of repeated Falcon 9 reflights.
China has now cleared an important technical hurdle, but narrowing the gap with SpaceX will increasingly depend on launch cadence, turnaround time and reflight economics.
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