# China's LandSpace Lands Reusable Rocket Booster, Joining SpaceX and Blue Origin

*2026-08-19 18:01 UTC · Technology · 2 min read*

> LandSpace landed the reusable first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket, becoming the third private company after SpaceX and Blue Origin to recover an orbital-class booster.

Chinese startup LandSpace successfully recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on Wednesday, becoming only the third private company in the world to land an orbital-class booster after SpaceX and Blue Origin. The 66.1-meter, nine-engine first stage lifted off at 07:35 local time from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone, separated from the second stage around 137 seconds into flight, and soft-landed vertically six minutes later at a recovery site 390 km southeast of the pad in Gansu province. The second stage went on to deliver the Honghu-03 satellite to orbit.

Zhuque-3 is built from stainless steel rather than the aluminum-lithium alloy SpaceX uses for Falcon 9, giving it greater heat resistance and lower production costs, and it burns methane and liquid oxygen instead of kerosene. It can carry 14.2 tonnes to low Earth orbit, versus 22.8 tonnes for Falcon 9. LandSpace says it aims to reuse each booster up to 20 times and plans to refly the recovered stage within six months.

The landing is China's fourth attempt at orbital booster recovery and its first successful ground-based, leg-landed touchdown, three years after LandSpace's Zhuque-2 became the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit in July 2023. Reusability is central to cutting launch costs — SpaceX flies Falcon 9 roughly 150 times a year, reusing boosters dozens of times each — and the milestone narrows China's technical gap with SpaceX as LandSpace also pursues a Shanghai Stock Exchange listing.

## Sources

- [techstartups.com](https://techstartups.com/2026/08/19/chinas-landspace-lands-reusable-rocket-booster-closing-the-gap-with-spacex/)
- [canberratimes.com.au](https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9333719/chinese-firm-lands-booster-in-reusable-rocket-milestone/)

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TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/2218-china-s-landspace-lands-reusable-rocket-booster-joining-spacex-and-blue-origin
Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/2291-cinsky-landspace-pristal-s-opakovane-pouzitelnym-boosterem-pridal-se-ke-spacex