HWBRIEF
LandSpace's methane fueled Zhuque 3 placed a satellite in orbit and returned its 66 meter (216 foot) first stage to a propulsive landing about 240 miles (390 km) downrange — China's first successful on land recovery of an orbital class booster.
LandSpace's Zhuque-3 lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone at Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert on Tuesday at 7:35 pm EDT (23:35 UTC; 07:35 UTC+8), placed a single satellite in orbit, and brought its 216-foot (66 m) stainless-steel first stage back to a propulsive touchdown on four extendable legs about 240 miles (390 km) downrange. The recovery makes LandSpace — a Chinese commercial launch company founded in 2015 — the first Chinese company to land an orbital-class booster on land, per SpaceNews and Spaceflight Now.
The first stage is the large lower section of a two-stage rocket; landing it intact is a step toward flying the same hardware again. LandSpace called the flight "China's first-ever successful recovery attempt of the first stage of an orbital-class launch vehicle using landing legs, and China's first successful booster recovery on land," in a statement on X.
The first Zhuque-3 booster crashed in December 2024. Engineers then shifted the final landing burn to a single engine and updated the heat shield and reentry controls on the nine-engine, methane-fueled airframe. Dai Zheng, head of the Zhuque-3 project, told Chinese state television the descent used "high-altitude gliding, followed by ignition for deceleration upon re-entry, aerodynamic glide control, and finally, a landing burn," with the final braking a "one-shot reverse-parking" maneuver.
Whether the same booster flies again is the open question. Tuesday's recovery is the milestone; reuse is the next test.