China’s LandSpace safely lands reusable rocket booster, joins SpaceX

Chinese private aerospace company LandSpace on Wednesday successfully recovered the first-stage booster of its Zhuque-3 rocket, becoming only the third private company after SpaceX and Blue Origin to achieve a controlled landing of an orbital-class rocket booster, according to agency reports.The breakthrough marks a significant step in China's efforts to develop reusable rocket technology, which is considered essential for lowering launch costs and expanding commercial access to space.
The 66.1-metre Zhuque-3 lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwestern China. Its nine-engine first-stage booster later landed at a designated site in Gansu province, about 390 kilometres from the launch pad, according to state media reports.The achievement came during LandSpace's second attempt to recover the booster of the stainless steel rocket, which has been described as China's answer to SpaceX's Falcon 9.

Earlier, SpaceX and Blue Origin demonstrated the commercial potential of reusable launch systems by repeatedly recovering and reusing rocket boosters. LandSpace aims to reuse the Zhuque-3 booster up to 20 times as it seeks to expand reusable launch services and strengthen its position in China's growing private space industry.The successful landing is also expected to boost investor confidence as the company pursues a 7.5-billion-yuan initial public offering to support future development.