The maiden flight of Chinese aerospace company LandSpace’s next-generation Zhuque-3 rocket ended in failure on Wednesday, dealing a blow to its ambition of joining SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only companies to have successfully tested a reusable rocket.
According to state news agency Xinhua, the rocket was unable to complete a controlled landing after a successful liftoff. “An abnormal combustion event occurred during the process, preventing a soft landing on the recovery pad,” the report said. “The recovery test failed and the specific cause is still under further analysis and investigation.”
The unsuccessful test underscores the technical challenges of developing rockets that can be recovered and reused, a feat that significantly reduces launch costs and increases mission frequency.
Aiming to Rival SpaceX’s Reusable Technology
A successful reusable orbital rocket would have marked a major milestone for China’s private space sector, supporting Beijing’s broader plans to expand space operations and deploy large satellite constellations similar to SpaceX’s Starlink network.
SpaceX pioneered rocket reusability with its Falcon 9 booster, achieving its first successful landing in 2015 after two failures. The reusable design transformed the global launch industry by cutting costs and increasing launch cadence. SpaceX’s dominance grew rapidly after it began launching Starlink satellites in 2019, making it the world’s largest satellite operator within a year.
In October, Elon Musk publicly praised Zhuque-3’s design, saying on X (formerly Twitter) that the Chinese rocket “could even beat Falcon 9.” Despite the compliment, analysts say the technological gap remains substantial, and LandSpace faces a long road before achieving comparable reliability.
A Step Forward Despite Failure
While the mission failed to achieve a controlled landing, Zhuque-3’s test still marks a key milestone for China’s commercial space industry. The rocket brings LandSpace closer to developing a Falcon 9-class reusable system, putting it ahead of domestic rivals such as iSpace, Galactic Energy, and Deep Blue Aerospace, whose technologies remain at earlier stages.
If perfected, Zhuque-3 could enable China to conduct more frequent and cost-effective missions, accelerating its satellite deployment plans and advancing its ambitions to rival the United States in commercial space capability.
(with inputs from Reuters)
