A private Chinese space company managed to send its Zhuque-3 rocket into orbit, but failed in a historic attempt to land the rocket’s booster on Wednesday — the first such test by a Chinese company, as the country’s growing commercial space sector races to catch up to American rivals like SpaceX.
Beijing-based LandSpace, one of the leading companies in the sector, launched its Zhuque-3 rocket into space from a remote launch base in the desert of northwest China.
It entered orbit as planned, but its first stage – the part of the vehicle responsible for propulsion during takeoff – was unable to return to the landing site, ending up crashing, the company said in a statement.
“An anomaly occurred following ignition of the first stage engine during the landing phase, preventing a smooth landing on the designated recovery pad,” the statement said. “The debris landed on the edge of the recovery area, resulting in an unsuccessful recovery test.”
The team “will conduct a comprehensive analysis” and continue to “advance the verification and application of reusable rocket technology in future missions,” the statement added.
While unsuccessful, the test put the company at the forefront of a field of Chinese companies competing to develop reusable rocket technology within a growing commercial space sector that Beijing hopes will boost its competition with global rivals and help transform the country into a “strong aerospace nation.”
Reusable rockets are considered key because the technology can significantly reduce the cost and preparation time of launches – a distinct advantage as global companies race to build satellite networks and envision a future space travel industry.
They also provide a strategic advantage to a country, as space is increasingly becoming a domain linked to military power and defense capabilities on Earth.
Reusable rockets form the backbone of the success of Elon Musk’s company, which developed how to land and reuse rocket boosters nearly a decade ago and now dominates the global launch market.
Blue Origin, SpaceX’s American competitor, completed its first successful landing, during the launch of a pair of satellites destined for Mars. The achievement came after an unsuccessful attempt to land the propellant carried out by the company earlier this year. SpaceX was also unsuccessful in its first attempts.
LandSpace’s attempt on Wednesday was an “impressive” feat that appeared to be “90 percent successful,” according to space expert Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting.
“It appears that it was indeed a largely successful attempt, and that there is a structural, ignition or engine problem. This will take some time to fix, but it won’t take years,” Curcio said, highlighting how the rocket crashed close to the expected landing zone.
“All these aspects are generally good signs for the maturity of the commercial space sector in China,” he added.
A race to achieve
LandSpace’s ambitions have been closely watched by national and international competitors, with Musk commenting on Zhuque-3 launch preparations in recent months.
Musk posted on
But he also predicted it would take the company “more than 5 years to reach Falcon 9 levels of reliability and production/launch rate.” By then, “SpaceX will have transitioned to Starship and will be delivering more than 100 times the annual Falcon payload to orbit,” he added.
Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, is still in development, but is expected to be “fully reusable” – meaning SpaceX also intends to recover and reuse the rocket’s upper stage, something it has never done before.
Landspace, however, also has lofty ambitions.
In an interview with Chinese state media in 2023, LandSpace founder and CEO Zhang Changwu acknowledged that China’s commercial rocket development “still lags behind SpaceX”, but if the company continues in the “right development direction”, they “may one day match SpaceX’s capabilities”.
Zhang also told state media last year that from 2026 the company will begin carrying out spacecraft launch missions to China’s Tiangong Space Station.
This would be a historic milestone in terms of commercial spaceflight supporting national missions – and makes having a reusable system even more crucial.
The company has already recorded other major successes, including the world’s first successful orbital launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket powered by methane and liquid oxygen in 2023, beating international rivals who also develop rockets with what is considered a cleaner, more efficient fuel. (SpaceX’s Starship is also powered by methane, but the vehicle has so far only performed suborbital test flights.)
A “strong aerospace power”
LandSpace is among a select group of Chinese companies developing reusable rocket technology. Commercial companies – with Beijing’s approval – have become an increasingly important part of China’s space innovation, mirroring a model that has seen success in the US.
This industrial development comes as leader Xi Jinping has in recent years highlighted the aerospace sector as a “strategic emerging industry”, with the country’s next five-year plan expected to include a focus on accelerating the country’s development as a “strong aerospace power”.
Over the past decade, several private companies have flown orbital launch missions, and several developers have conducted early ground-based tests of reusable rocket technology.
Both the state-run Shanghai Academy of Space Technology’s Long March 12A and private firm Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 are close to attempting their own orbital test flights of reusable rockets, according to state media reports.
“From 2015 to this year 2025, exactly 10 years, China’s commercial space sector essentially went from zero to reach a new tipping point,” Liu Yuzhang, director of the Taibo Research Institute, a Chinese think tank focused on aerospace industries, told CNN.
On Monday, the country’s space authority announced that it has established a new internal department to oversee and develop its commercial space sector.
And last week, it launched a two-year action plan to integrate the country’s commercial space sector into the national space development strategy.
But while the industry appears poised for faster advancement, close observers say there is still much work to be done, and that failure is part of the process.
Even when there is failure, “there is the mentality of going back to square one and continuing rapid and continuous iteration,” Liu told CNN before launch.
The long-term goal, he added, is to reduce rocket launch costs and further improve the ability to send satellites into orbit, including delivering supplies to the space station, and even contribute to lunar or Martian exploration.
