China Landspace ZhuQue-3 Y1 Reusable Rocket Completes Orbital Test Mission
On December 3, 2025, 12:00 p.m. (UTC+8), China commercial launch services firm Landspace's Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) Y1 launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwestern China near the Jiuquan spaceport, completing its flight mission with a successful preset orbital insertion by its second stage. However, anomalous combustion occurred, preventing the first stage from achieving a soft landing at the recovery site. The first stage was not recovered. Despite this, the mission validated the design and operational procedures of the Zhuque-3 rocket, including testing, launch, and flight processes. Moreover, it confirmed the compatibility of interfaces across all systems and provided critical flight engineering data.
By comparison, SpaceX's first landing test occurred in September 2013 on the sixth flight of a Falcon 9 and maiden launch of the v1.1 rocket version. Between 2013 to 2016, sixteen test flights were conducted, only six of these achieved a soft landing and recovery of the first-stage booster.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has commented on the Landspace Zhuque-3's design: "They have added aspects of Starship, such as use of stainless steel and methalox, to a Falcon 9 architecture, which would enable it to beat Falcon 9 . . ."
With a diameter of 4.5 meters and a total length of around 66 meters, the Zhuque-3 rocket can carry up to 18 satellites per launch, making it an ideal choice for launching satellites for large-scale constellation networks.
Equipped with landing legs and grid fins for controlled descent, the rocket is designed to vertically recover its most expensive component—the first stage, accounting for 70 percent of the rocket's total cost.
As its first stage is designed to be reused at least 20 times, the rocket has the potential to reduce launch costs by 80 to 90 percent compared with single-use rockets.
Powered by a parallel cluster of nine liquid oxygen-methane engines, the first-stage can achieve meter-level landing precision, as five of the engines are capable of gimballing.
In addition, these engines produce a combined thrust of more than 7,500 kilonewtons, setting a new record for Chinese commercial liquid-fueled rockets.
Beijing-based LandSpace is a leading Chinese private space company. With its Zhuque-2 rocket, LandSpace became the world's first company to launch a methane-liquid oxygen rocket to Earth orbit in July 2023, ahead of U.S. rivals, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
Zhuque-3's development marks a significant stride in the pursuit of low-cost, high-frequency, and large-capacity space launches for China's private space industry.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC) in nortwestern China was founded in 1958. It was the first of China's four spaceports. The launch center has been the focus of many of China's historic space ventures, including the country's first satellite Dong Fang Hong I in 1970 and their first crewed space mission, Shenzhou V, on October 15, 2003. JSLC is now a home for many new Chinese commercial space launch firms, like Landspace.
Date: Dec. 3, 2025
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China commercial space transportation company Landspace's update:
ReplyDelete"The Zhuque-3 launch vehicle completed its maiden flight with all primary mission events performed nominally. The first stage flight was normal, stage separation performed as planned, and the fairing jettison and first stage landed precisely within the designated area. The second stage performed normally and achieved the target orbit, marking a complete success of the orbital launch mission."
"During the first stage recovery system verification test, engines thrust throttling operated normally, attitude control remained stable, and the down range recovery trajectory was nominal. An anomaly occurred as the first stage approached the designated recovery zone. No personnel safety issues occurred. China’s first rocket recovery attempt achieved its expected technical objectives."