On August 19, a Chinese space startup successfully recovered the first stage of a land-based rocket, marking the first time the country has recovered a land-based rocket and is a "breakthrough" in reusable spacecraft technology.
Beijing has invested billions of USD in space programs in recent years to realize what President Xi Jinping calls China's "space dream".
According to the state news agency Xinhua, the Zhuque-3 rocket developed by LandSpace startup left the launch pad from the Dongfeng commercial aerospace innovation pilot area in northwest China at 7:35 am.
The first layer - the bottom part of the missile - was then successfully recovered, "landing smoothly". Images broadcast by state television CCTV show the missile block stabilizing its altitude down to the landing pad in the middle of the desert, the bases unfolding to support the missile body.
The second stage of the rocket put the Honghu-03 satellite into orbit. Xinhua assessed the mission as "completely successful".
Space experts believe that LandSpace is the first company outside the United States to successfully land a trajectory-level rocket booster "on its own base".
LandSpace's successful landing is a major milestone for China's commercial space sector," commented Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at the University of Macquarie in Australia.
This achievement came just one month after the first floor of the Truong Chinh-10B rocket developed by the state was recovered from a floating platform at sea in July.
China has now demonstrated two different retrieval architectures through both the state-owned and commercial space sectors," de Grijs said. "The combination of institutional competition and technical testing can help China develop cheaper, higher-frequency launch capabilities, which are essential for the super satellite clusters that it is planning.
According to Xinhua, the Zhuque-3 rocket has been approved by the China National Aeronautics Administration and is being manufactured for "low-cost, high payload and high launch frequency" missions.
