China recovers rocket on land in push to catch up with SpaceX
China recovered a rocket booster on land for the first time, a major step for its space tech. A Zhuque-3 rocket landed in Gansu, developed by LandSpace Technology Corp.
A Zhuque-3 rocket landed on its legs in the northwestern province of Gansu after helping send a satellite into orbit on Wednesday (August 19), according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The rocket took off from Jiuquan, one of China’s main space launch centers.
A video clip posted online showed the rocket tapering back on thrust to touch down gently on special legs, which should allow it to be reused.
The landing comes after China performed one at sea in July, successes that highlight the nation’s progress in space tech, despite setbacks like a rocket exploding during launch earlier this month.
“LandSpace’s successful booster recovery with the Zhuque-3 is a watershed moment for China’s commercial space sector,” said Eric Zhu, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Zhuque-3 is developed by LandSpace Technology Corp., a Chinese commercial launch provider that applied to list shares in Shanghai last year. The startup is racing to catch up to SpaceX and Blue Origin LLC, which is backed by Jeff Bezos.
SpaceX has been recovering and recycling the boosters of its Falcon 9 rockets since 2017, helping it grab a near-monopoly in heavy-lift rocket launches and supporting the growth of its thousands of Starlink satellites.
That’s spurred a push in China, which is in the early stages of building a similar internet satellite network. That effort has relied on single-use rockets to put satellites into orbit.
LandSpace is one of the leading startups to emerge in the decade since the Chinese government opened the industry to the private sector. In 2023, it became the first company in the world to launch a rocket fueled by methane, which has the potential to be cleaner and safer than other fuels.
Zhu said LandSpace “now faces the tougher engineering challenge of demonstrating it can rapidly and cost-effectively refurbish and refly that hardware — a process that took SpaceX several years to master.”
Original source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/
