Watch: SpaceX rocket spotted off Christmas Island coast
A Christmas Island resident was surprised to find the massive piece of debris floating off the coast.
Chinese aerospace startup LandSpace successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on Wednesday (Aug 19), marking the nation's first reusable orbital-class booster landing. This achievement places LandSpace alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin as private companies capable of returning and reusing orbital-class booster rockets, a crucial step in reducing launch costs and making space exploration more commercially viable.
The Zhuque-3, a stainless steel rocket, launched from a site in northwestern China, with the nine-engine first stage returning to a landing site in Gansu province, 390km southeast of the launch pad. This landing is crucial as it will likely boost investor confidence in LandSpace as it seeks to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market, raising 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.11 billion) through an initial public offering to fund the development of reusable launch services.
The rocket's design, made of stainless steel, offers improved heat resistance and potential cost savings compared to SpaceX's aluminum-lithium alloy Falcon 9. LandSpace aims to reuse the Zhuque-3 booster up to 20 times, while SpaceX reuses its Falcon 9 booster dozens of times annually. This success follows China's first reusable rocket test in December 2025, and comes on the heels of a failed recovery attempt for the Long March 12A state-developed rocket in July.
Written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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