Chinese commercial rocket firm LandSpace successfully landed the first stage of its stainless-steel Zhuque-3 rocket on land near Jiuquan on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. The milestone narrows the reusable rocket gap with U.S. competitors and gives China two distinct orbital recovery paths.
China achieved a major milestone in commercial spaceflight on Wednesday when private rocket company LandSpace recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on land for the first time. The launch lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwestern China, near Jiuquan in Gansu province. The engine-packed booster returned to a landing site in Gansu province, located 390 km (242 miles) southeast of the launch pad, according to state media reported by Xinhua.
The successful test marks LandSpace’s second attempt to land the first stage of the Zhuque-3. The startup made history in December 2025 as the first Chinese entity to conduct a reusable rocket test, though that vehicle’s first stage did not complete a controlled landing after reaching orbit. Weeks later, China launched the state-developed Long March 12A, which also reached orbit but failed in recovery.
Dual-Track Recovery Puts China in a Global Class With SpaceX and Blue Origin
With Wednesday’s ground-based touchdown, LandSpace joins Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as the only private companies capable of landing an orbital-class booster. Those two U.S. aerospace pioneers have been recovering rockets since 2015, using hardware reuse to drive down launch costs by capturing boosters that would otherwise be discarded.
The breakthrough also establishes China as the first nation to succeed in orbital launch recovery using two distinct technological pathways. While LandSpace employs deployable landing legs on its stainless-steel vehicle—mirroring the approach used by SpaceX’s Falcon 9—China demonstrated a completely different method just weeks prior. On July 10, the first stage of a state-developed Long March-10B rocket separated after liftoff and returned to a floating sea platform, where it was caught using a unique net-capture system outfitted with four lightweight hooks and steel cables. That seaborne recovery made China the second country overall to land an orbital-class rocket, followed immediately by Japan’s test flight of an experimental reusable rocket on July 11.
Stainless-Steel Engineering and the Road to Commercial Viability
The Zhuque-3 is a 66.1-metre (216-foot) rocket billed as China’s answer to the Falcon 9. LandSpace stated that the stainless steel provides greater heat resistance and promises reduced production costs compared to aluminum-lithium builds. The vehicle runs on a cleaner-burning mix of methane and liquid oxygen rather than the kerosene and liquid oxygen blend utilized by the Falcon 9.
Capacity-wise, the Zhuque-3 can lift 14.2 metric tons to low Earth orbit on a one-way trip, trailing the Falcon 9’s 22.8-ton capability. However, LandSpace aims for the booster to be reused up to 20 times, closing the operational gap in launch frequency and cost-efficiency. By comparison, SpaceX flies its Falcon 9 fleet roughly 150 times a year—about three times a week—reusing individual boosters dozens of times.
State media reported that China has successfully recaptured the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, and Xinhua noted that the recovery also marked the country’s first use of deployable landing legs.
Financial Stakes and Next Milestones for LandSpace
The achievement is expected to increase investor confidence as LandSpace pursues an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s tech-focused STAR Market. The company submitted an updated prospectus in June detailing plans to raise 7.5 billion yuan ($1.11 billion) to support development and expand its reusable launch services, with an eye toward achieving profitability by 2029.
LandSpace plans to fly a recovered first-stage booster again within the next six months, an operational step the firm says will lay the foundation for high-frequency and low-cost commercial launches.
