China Preparing for First-Ever Orbital Launch and Booster Landing Attempt With Commercial Zhuque-3’s Reusable Rocket

A successful landing would mark a major milestone for China. Until now, no Chinese rocket—state-owned or commercial—has attempted to land a booster after an orbital launch. The achievement would come a decade after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first demonstrated powered landings and only weeks after Blue Origin successfully recovered its New Glenn booster. The test also positions Landspace ahead of China’s state-owned contractor CASC, which is preparing its own reusable Long March 12A rocket for an upcoming attempt.

Zhuque-3 itself represents a significant technological step forward. Constructed entirely from stainless steel, the two-stage vehicle stands 66 meters tall and has a diameter of 4.5 meters. Its first stage is powered by nine Tianque-12A methane-liquid oxygen engines, giving the rocket a liftoff mass of roughly 570 metric tons. Zhuque-3 can carry up to 21 metric tons to low Earth orbit when flown expendably or around 18.3 tons with booster recovery—closely matching the payload capability of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and placing it just behind China’s heavy-lift Long March 5.

The rocket underwent a full propellant-loading rehearsal and a multi-day static fire test in October at Launch Pad 2, designed specifically for methane-fueled rockets. For its debut mission, Zhuque-3 will carry a prototype of the Haolong reusable cargo spacecraft, part of a broader program to develop affordable supply vehicles for China’s Tiangong space station. The demonstration flight will collect essential data for future recovery missions and for establishing a high-cadence, low-cost launch architecture suited for China’s rapidly expanding satellite constellations.

The timing of Zhuque-3’s launch was affected by a series of crewed mission operations at Jiuquan. The expected debut was pushed back due to the delayed return of the Shenzhou-20 crew after their spacecraft was found to have suffered suspected orbital debris damage. This forced the crew to return aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft, prompting the emergency launch of Shenzhou-22 on November 25. During this period, Landspace shared images of Zhuque-3 on the pad with the Long March 2F rocket for Shenzhou-22 visible in the distance, illustrating how overlapping missions led to congestion at the spaceport.

Landspace’s upcoming attempt is the result of more than a decade of development and growth. The company was founded in 2014 after China opened its space sector to private investment. Its first orbital attempt, the solid-fueled Zhuque-1 in 2018, failed, but the firm quickly shifted to methane propulsion. This pivot led to the Zhuque-2, which—after an initial setback—became the world’s first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit in July 2023. The upgraded Zhuque-2E has flown multiple times since, though its most recent mission ended in failure on August 15. Landspace has attracted significant financial backing, including a $123 million investment from China’s National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund in December 2024, and it has filed preliminary documents for a potential IPO in early 2026.

China’s broader commercial launch ecosystem has rapidly evolved alongside these developments. Early private launch companies focused on small solid rockets for cubesat deployments. But as China approved major satellite megaconstellations such as Guowang, Qianfan (Thousand Sails) and Honghu-3, the national strategy shifted toward reusable, medium- and heavy-lift rockets capable of high-frequency launches. Zhuque-3 sits at the center of this transformation, potentially enabling a new era of rapid, reusable access to space for China’s commercial and state-backed projects.

By Azhar