Space travel: China succeeds in rocket landing on legs
For the first time in China, a rocket stage has landed vertically on its own legs after an orbital launch. It belonged to the privately developed "Zhuque-3" and returned to Earth in a controlled manner.
For the first time, a Chinese rocket stage has successfully landed vertically on legs following an orbital launch. The stage was part of the privately developed "Zhuque-3" rocket. During an orbital launch, the rocket reaches a stable orbit around Earth. The rocket took off on Wednesday from the commercial test zone Dongfeng in northwest China.
The entire flight was reported to have proceeded normally, with the mission considered successful by the state news agency Xinhua. The first stage safely landed at the designated recovery area, and a satellite was also placed into the intended Earth orbit. This was the second landing attempt for the "Zhuque-3" after an orbital launch.
In the first attempt in December 2025, the second stage also reached the intended orbit, but the first stage failed to make a soft landing; its remnants landed near the landing site. China had previously successfully retrieved a rocket stage after an orbital launch in July. That time, the first stage of a state-developed "Langer Marsch 10B" rocket was recovered by a net from a floating platform in the sea.
The first stage of the "Zhuque-3" however landed on its own power using legs, similar to the approach used by SpaceX's "Falcon 9".
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
