Reusable rocket milestone opens a door for Hong Kong’s space ambitions
On the morning of August 19, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area. After deploying its second stage and payload into orbit, the rocket’s first stage touched down softly at a recovery site in Gansu province using deployable landing legs. It was China’s first s
On the morning of August 19, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area. After deploying its second stage and payload into orbit, the rocket’s first stage touched down softly at a recovery site in Gansu province using deployable landing legs.
It was China’s first successful land-based recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster that had just completed an orbital mission – a feat previously achieved only by SpaceX.
Just over a month earlier, on July 10, state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corpartion recovered the first stage of a Long March-10B rocket using a sea-based net system. In less than six weeks, China displayed two distinct recovery methods – a rapid succession of milestones that underscores the country’s space ambitions.
The benchmark for reusable rockets remains SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which pioneered vertical landing after launches of this kind and has conducted hundreds of recoveries. Through first-stage reuse, Falcon 9 has driven its launch price down to about US$2,700 per kg (US$1,225 per lb) – a reduction of 85 per cent from an average of US$18,500 in the pre-reusable era. In contrast, China’s commercial launch prices hover at between US$8,000 and US$14,000 per kg, depending on rocket type and mission profile.
The Zhuque-3 is explicitly designed to close that gap. Standing 66 metres tall with a lift-off mass of roughly 570 tonnes, its first stage is powered by nine methane-liquid oxygen engines. Its stainless-steel structure – a deliberate departure from Falcon 9’s aluminium alloy – offers better heat resistance at a lower manufacturing cost. The booster is designed to be reused at least 20 times.
But while the China-US technology gap in reusable launch vehicles has narrowed, it remains substantial. As a Zhuque-3 team engineer acknowledged anonymously in 2024: “China may have its own Falcon 9 rocket in five years and Starship in 20 years. We need to work hard to catch up.”
01:41
China becomes first nation to recover orbital launch rockets with 2 distinct paths