LandSpace Achieves China's First Orbital Booster Land Recovery

Chinese startup LandSpace successfully recovered the first stage of its ZhuQue-3 rocket on August 19, 2026, marking China's first ground-based, leg-landed recovery of an orbital-class booster. The 66.1-meter stainless-steel rocket launched from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone, deploying the Honghu 03 demonstration communications satellite into low Earth orbit before the nine-engine booster performed a vertical soft landing in Minqin County, Gansu province.

While the landing was successful, social media footage indicated a post-landing fire in the vehicle's aft section. This flight test follows a December 2025 attempt that ended in a crash landing. The ZhuQue-3 utilizes methane and liquid oxygen and is designed for up to 20 reuses, though its payload capacity of 14.2 tonnes to low Earth orbit remains lower than that of SpaceX's Falcon 9. This achievement places LandSpace alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only private companies to achieve this specific capability.

LandSpace plans to reuse a recovered booster within the next six months to enable lower-cost commercial launches. The company is currently seeking to raise 7.5 billion yuan through an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market, with a goal of reaching profitability by 2029.