China successfully lands its Zhuque-3 rocket, rivaling Blue Origin and SpaceX
Beijing’s success shows how close China is to the U.S. in the new space race
Beijing achieved a significant milestone in the space race by successfully landing and recovering the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on Wednesday. This feat puts China on par with U.S. space companies Blue Origin and SpaceX, which have also mastered reusable rocket technology. LandSpace, a Chinese space startup, successfully completed the landing after a previous attempt ended in failure.
The Zhuque-3, designed to rival SpaceX's Falcon 9, is made of stainless steel, which makes it more durable and cheaper to build than the aluminum alloy Falcon 9. However, the Zhuque-3 has a lower payload capacity and is intended for reuse 20 times compared to the Falcon 9's reuse potential of 36. The success highlights China's ambition to land humans on the moon by 2030, a goal that the U.S. aims to achieve by 2028.
Written by urgent.news from Scientific American's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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