Chinese reusable booster explodes during first orbital test, in failed bid to catch SpaceX

The rocket entered orbit as planned, but its first stage – the portion of the vehicle that propels it at liftoff – did not successfully return to a landing site, instead crashing down, the company said in a statement.

Beijing (CNN) — A private Chinese space firm successfully sent its Zhuque-3 rocket to orbit but failed in its historic attempt to re-land the rocket booster Wednesday – the first such trial by a Chinese firm as the country’s growing commercial space sector races to catch up with American rivals like SpaceX.

Beijing-based LandSpace, one of the sector’s leading firms, launched its Zhuque-3 rocket into space from a remote, desert launch site in northwestern China.

The rocket entered orbit as planned, but its first stage – the portion of the vehicle that propels it at liftoff – did not successfully return to a landing site, instead crashing down, the company said in a statement.

“An anomaly occurred after the first-stage engine ignited during the landing phase, preventing a soft landing on the designated recovery pad,” the statement said. “The debris landed at the edge of the recovery area, resulting in a failed recovery test.”

The team would “conduct a comprehensive review” and continue to “advance the verification and application of reusable rocket technology in future missions,” the statement added.

Even though unsuccessful, the trial has placed the company at the head of a pack of Chinese firms vying to develop reusable rocket technology within a growing commercial space sector that Beijing hopes will power its competition with global rivals and help transform the country into a “strong aerospace nation.”

Reusable rockets are seen as key, because the technology can significantly lower the cost and turn-around time of rocket launches – a distinct advantage as global firms race to build out satellite networks and eye a future space travel industry.

They also provide a strategic advantage for a country as space increasingly becomes a domain linked to military power and defense capabilities on Earth.

Reusable rockets form the backbone of the success of Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX, which hashed out how to land and reuse rocket boosters nearly a decade ago and now dominates the global launch market.

American SpaceX competitor Blue Origin completed its first successful landing of the first stage of its New Glenn rocket last month, while launching a pair of satellites destined for Mars. The accomplishment followed a failed booster landing attempt made by the company earlier this year. SpaceX also did not succeed in its first attempts.

LandSpace’s Wednesday attempt was an “impressive” feat that appeared to be upwards of “90% successful,” according to space expert Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting.

“It looks like it was really a largely successful attempt, and that there’s either a structural issue or an igniter issue, or an engine issue. That will take some time to fix, but it will not take years to fix,” Curcio said, pointing to how the rocket came down close to its expected landing zone.

“All of those things are generally good signs for the maturity of the commercial space sector in China,” he added.

A game of catch-up

LandSpace’s ambitions have been closely watched by competitors at home and abroad, with Musk commenting on the Zhuque-3 launch preparations in recent months.

Musk posted on X in October that the company had “added aspects” of his vehicle Starship “to a Falcon 9 architecture, which would enable it to beat Falcon 9,” referring to SpaceX’s reusable launch vehicle.

But he also predicted it would take the company “over 5 years to reach Falcon 9 levels of reliability and production/launch rate.” By that time “SpaceX will have transitioned to Starship and be doing over 100 times the annual payload to orbit of Falcon,” he added.

Starship, the most powerful rocket ever constructed, remains under development but is meant to be “fully reusable” – meaning SpaceX intends to also return and reuse the upper stage of the rocket, which has never been done before.

Landspace, however, has lofty ambitions, too.

In an interview with Chinese state media in 2023, LandSpace founder and CEO Zhang Changwu acknowledged that China’s commercial rocket development “still lags behind SpaceX,” but if the company continues in the “right development direction” they would “one day be able to match SpaceX’s capabilities.”

Zhang also told state media last year that from 2026 the firm would begin undertaking spacecraft launch missions for China’s Tiangong Space Station. That would be a first in terms of commercial spaceflight supporting national missions – and make having a reusable system even more critical.

The firm has already marked other major successes, including the world’s first successful orbital launch of its Zhuque-2 methane-liquid oxygen rocket in 2023, beating international rivals also developing rockets with what’s seen as a cleaner-burning and more efficient fuel. (SpaceX’s Starship is also powered by methane, but the vehicle so far has only flown suborbital test flights.)

A ‘strong aerospace nation’

LandSpace is among a handful of Chinese firms that are developing reusable rocket technology. Commercial firms – with Beijing’s blessing – have become an increasingly important part of China’s space innovation, mirroring a model that’s seen success in the US.

That industry development comes as leader Xi Jinping in recent years has highlighted the aerospace sector as a “strategic emerging industry,” with the country’s upcoming five-year plan expected to include a focus on accelerating the development of the country into a “strong aerospace nation.”

Over the past decade, multiple private firms have conducted orbital launch missions, and several developers have conducted initial land tests of reusable rocket technology.

Both state-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology’s Long March 12A and private firm Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 are thought to be close to attempting their own orbital test flights of reusable rockets, according to state media reports.

“From 2015 up to this year 2025, exactly 10 years, China’s commercial space sector has essentially gone from nothing to a new critical point,” Liu Yuzhang, director of Taibo Research Institute, a Chinese think tank focusing on aerospace industries, told CNN.

On Monday, the country’s space authority announced that it had established a new internal department to oversee and develop its commercial space sector.

And last week it rolled out a two-year action plan to integrate the country’s commercial space sector into the national space development strategy.

But while the sector appears poised for more rapid advancement, those watching closely say much work remains, and failure is part of the process.

Even when there is failure, “there is the mindset of returning to zero and continuing rapid, ongoing iteration,” Liu told CNN ahead of the launch.

The long-term goal, he added, is to reduce rocket launch costs and further improve the ability to send satellites into orbit, including delivering supplies to the space station, and even contributing to lunar or Martian exploration.

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