China marches towards re-usable rockets with successful first-stage landing
Chinese space startup LandSpace has landed a first-stage booster on land, the first time a Middle Kingdom company has achieved the feat.
LandSpace flies rockets called Zhuque and has built three generations of the craft.
Zhuque-1 only flew once, in 2018.
Zhuque-2 became the first liquid oxygen-methane vehicle to reach orbit when it first flew in 2022.
It can can carry 6,000 kilograms to a 200km low Earth orbit or 4,000kg to a 600km Sun-synchronous orbit.
LandSpace has flown it eight times since 2022.
Six missions succeeded.
Zhuque-3 is the company’s new flagship and can hoist 21,300 kg to a 450km orbit.
The rocket uses LandSpace’s own TQ-12A engines, which burn liquid oxygen-methane fuel.
The rocket’s first stage is re-usable, and can land on its four legs.
LandSpace flew the Zhuque-3 for the first time last December, but the mission failed – although its on-board Ethernet performed brilliantly.
The company did better yesterday, when a Zhuque-3 sent a satellite into orbit and managed to land its first stage.
You can see a video of the landing on the company’s Weixin account.
The company says the rocket lifted off at 7:35 AM yesterday, split its first and second stages 137 seconds into the flight, and landed the first stage at 7:41 AM.
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