China’s latest attempt to develop a reusable rocket suffered a setback on Tuesday after the first stage of its new Long March 12A failed to land and be recovered following launch, according to its state developer. The test, however, did achieve partial success as the rocket’s second stage reached its planned orbit.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned contractor behind the country’s main space programmes, confirmed the recovery failure but did not disclose details of the malfunction. “Further analysis and troubleshooting are under way,” CASC said in a statement.
The 70-metre-tall Long March 12A represents China’s effort to build a fully reusable launch system similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which has revolutionised commercial spaceflight by significantly cutting launch costs through booster recovery and reuse.
China’s Reusability Race
Although China has achieved dozens of successful satellite launches, it has yet to master booster recovery — a key technology that allows rockets to be reused for multiple missions. The Long March 12A’s debut marked only the country’s second recorded attempt at recovering a booster after launch.
Reusable technology is widely seen as the next frontier in making spaceflight more cost-effective. SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket, developed by Elon Musk’s aerospace company, has become the global standard, enabling its Starlink network to dominate the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite market.
While China has deployed hundreds of LEO satellites in recent years, analysts say it cannot realistically compete with Starlink until it develops its own reliable reusable rocket system.
Growing Domestic Competition
The failed recovery comes amid intensifying competition among Chinese rocket firms both state-owned and private to replicate SpaceX’s success. Earlier this month, private firm Landspace attempted to recover its own reusable rocket, Zhuque-3, but also failed to secure a stable booster landing.
Landspace, which employs fewer than 2,000 people, has positioned itself as a nimble private-sector challenger to CASC, whose workforce exceeds 100,000. Despite the latest setbacks, both entities are expected to continue testing reusable technologies as China accelerates its push to lower launch costs and expand its commercial satellite capacity.
The Long March 12A’s mixed outcome successful orbit insertion but unsuccessful recovery underscores both China’s rapid progress and the technological hurdles that remain before it can rival SpaceX in reusable spaceflight.
with inputs from Reuters
