China Landspace Reusable Rocket Mission Recap: Launch & First Stage Landing

China Landspace Reusable Rocket Mission Recap: Launch & First Stage Landing

🚀China achieved its first recovery of a rocket's first stage on land after launching and recovering part of the Zhuque-3 reusable rocket on Wednesday morning, Aug. 19, 2026. The Landspace Zhuque-3 (ZQ-3) Y2 rocket blasted off at 07:35 (Beijing Time) from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China, placing the Honghu03 satellite into its designated orbit. The flight mission was a complete success.

This mission followed the successful sea-based net recovery of the China Long March-10B rocket's first stage on July 10.

Today marked China's first successful land-based controlled recovery of a rocket's first stage using deployable landing legs, highlighting a major breakthrough in the country's reusable rocket technology.

Approximately 137 seconds after lift-off, the first and second stages separated. The second stage continued its flight and successfully delivered the Honghu 03 satellite, independently developed by Hongqing Technology, into its assigned orbit. At approximately 07:41, the first stage performed a successful soft touchdown at the LandSpace Landing Site#1 in Minqin County, Gansu Province, following the planned trajectory.

The Landspace ZhuQue-3 Y2 reusable launch vehicle achieved full success in orbital insertion and first-stage recovery with the power of its nine TQ-12A engines.

🎉This is China's first successful flight verification of land recovery for the first stage of a reusable launch vehicle, as well as its first successful verification of a landing using deployable landing legs.

The Honghu 03 satellite will trial its unfoldable thermal radiator, sizeable solar panels, electric propulsion system, and a 100-gigabit optical laser link ahead of mass production for connectivity constellations. 

This Landspace mission was the 2nd for the partially reusable Zhuque-3, and LandSpace’s 10th orbital launch attempt in the company’s history. This was also the 59th launch from China in 2026.

Video: Landspace

Duration: 2 minutes, 25 seconds

Date: Aug. 19, 2026

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