China’s LandSpace lands rocket booster; joins SpaceX, Blue Origin with reusable tech

LandSpace said the Zhuque-3 is made of stainless steel, which offers greater heat resistance and the prospect of reduced production costs compared with the Falcon 9’s aluminium-lithium alloy body. It also runs on methane and liquid oxygen, which can burn cleaner than the Falcon 9’s liquid oxygen and kerosene mix.

The rocket can lift 14.2 metric tons to low-Earth orbit on a one-way trip versus the Falcon 9’s 22.8 tons, LandSpace said.

LandSpace aims for the Zhuque-3 booster to be reused up to 20 times. SpaceX launches the Falcon 9 around 150 times a year, or roughly three times a week, and reuses its booster dozens of times.

FOURTH ATTEMPT

Wednesday’s launch marked China’s fourth orbital booster recovery attempt. 

LandSpace made history in December 2025 as the first Chinese entity to conduct a reusable rocket test. The rocket entered orbit as planned, but its first stage did not complete a controlled landing.

Weeks later, China launched the state-developed Long March 12A, which also reached orbit but failed in recovery.