The second Zhuque-3 rocket first stage during its landing burn, Aug. 18, 2026. Credit: Landspace
HELSINKI — Chinese commercial launch firm Landspace is targeting a reflight of its Zhuque-3 first stage in months, following its historic successful vertical landing Aug. 18.
A company representative told Chinese financial outlet STAR Market Daily that the firm plans to conduct a reflight test of the recovered stage within six months. The statement came hours after Zhuque-3’s second flight delivered the Honghu-03 satellite to orbit and brought the rocket’s first stage back for a vertical landing at a recovery site in Minqin County, Gansu province, roughly 390 kilometers downrange from the Jiuquan launch site.
The touchdown made Landspace the third entity worldwide, after SpaceX and Blue Origin, to land an orbital-class booster on legs, and the first Chinese company to recover a booster on land. The success followed China’s first-ever orbital booster recovery in July, when a state-owned Long March 10B was caught by a net-equipped vessel at sea.
The Zhuque-3 Y2 booster landing comes eight and a half months after the debut flight of the Zhuque-3, which reached orbit, but the first stage recovery attempt ended in failure during the latter stages of powered descent.
