The floodgates are open after another Chinese company lands a reusable rocket

The Zhuque-3, or ZQ-3, rocket lifted off from a commercial launch zone at China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 7:35 pm EDT (23:35 UTC) Tuesday, about an hour after sunrise Wednesday at the spaceport in the Gobi Desert. Nine methane-fueled engines powered the 216-foot-tall (66-meter) rocket on a course southeast from Jiuquan, then the rocket’s upper stage took over the task of placing a single satellite into orbit. The rocket’s first stage, made of stainless steel, soared to the edge of space, then maneuvered toward a prepared landing zone some 240 miles (390 kilometers) downrange, settling to a propulsive touchdown on four extendable landing legs. LandSpace, founded in 2015, declared the mission a total success. MISSION SUCCESS | ZhuQue-3 Y2 Reusable Launch Vehicle Achieved Full Success in Orbital Insertion and First-Stage Recovery On August 19, 2026, at 07:35 (UTC+8), the ZhuQue-3 (ZQ-3) Y2 reusable launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone.… pic.twitter.com/fshijOxgtc — LandSpace (@LandSpace_Tech) August 19, 2026 “This mission marks China’s first-ever successful recovery attempt of the first stage of an orbital-class launch vehicle using landing legs, and China’s first successful booster recovery on land,” LandSpace said in a statement. “It is a pivotal flight test for Zhuque-3 as it transitions from the technological demonstration and verification phase toward the engineering application phase of reusability.” LandSpace’s engineers made several changes to the rocket after the crash landing of the first Zhuque-3 booster in December. The updates included using just a single engine for the final phase of landing and modifications to the rocket’s heat shield for protection from reentry conditions. “This mission lays a solid foundation for subsequent stages, including post-recovery inspection and maintenance, reuse flights, and commercial applications,” LandSpace said. “The first stage underwent high-altitude gliding, followed by ignition for deceleration upon re-entry, aerodynamic glide control, and finally, a landing burn to slow down,” Dai Zheng, head of the Zhuque-3 project at LandSpace, told Chinese state television. “That final braking maneuver was executed beautifully, achieving a soft landing and realizing our original design goal of a ‘one-shot reverse-parking’ maneuver while moving at high speed. “Our team will immediately begin inspecting the recovered first-stage booster,” Dai said. “We will collect status data and perform maintenance and overhauls. Once that work is complete, we will put the booster back into service for another flight as soon as possible.” The US rocket industry has long been dominant in the two most important metrics: number of orbital launches and payload mass to orbit. This is almost entirely thanks to the growth of SpaceX and its pioneering reusable Falcon 9 rocket. For the past few years, Falcon 9s have flown an average of three times per week, usually on fully loaded missions to deliver more capacity to SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network. But SpaceX is looking to wind down the Falcon 9 rocket soon and could stop offering the workhorse launch vehicle to commercial customers after 2028. The replacement is Starship, a massive rocket with at least five times the payload capacity of the Falcon 9. It is designed for full reuse to support a more rapid launch cadence than the Falcon 9, which has likely already had its busiest year. Starship remains experimental, with many milestones to go before it can fully replace the Falcon 9. Starship also has a history of delays, so further schedule slips may cause SpaceX to reconsider the retirement of its workhorse. China is working on a Starship-like rocket called the Long March 9, but it won’t fly until sometime after 2030. The payload envelope for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket falls in between Falcon 9 and Starship. New Glenn appeared poised for a breakout year after the first reflight of a recovered first-stage booster, but the rocket is now grounded after an explosion on the launch pad in Florida in May. The other major US launch provider, United Launch Alliance, has no near-term plans for a reusable architecture. Nobody else is close, either. This all leaves companies like Rocket Lab, Stoke, Relativity, and others with a potential opening in the market for their medium- to heavy-class rockets once Falcon 9 is off the stage. China, meanwhile, has a bench that is arguably just as deep as the US launch industry. None of China’s space companies—even the colossal state-owned CASC—can come close to matching SpaceX’s rapid-fire launch schedule. Collectively, they only launch about half as often as SpaceX. But that is with a fleet of entirely expendable rockets. China’s foray into the realm of reusable rockets could change that.