China has gained pace in the space race by recovering rockets – but can it relaunch one?

China has made significant strides in the space race by successfully recovering rockets, yet it faces challenges in relaunching them. In a recent development, private aerospace company LandSpace achieved a controlled ground-based recovery of a Zhuque-3 rocket's first-stage booster using deployable landing legs, marking the country's first such recovery.

This accomplishment, while significant, falls short of China's aspiration to become a major player in reusable rocket technology, an area where the United States currently holds a substantial lead. The US commercial space firm SpaceX has been particularly vocal about its reusable first-stage rocket boosters, having flown over 600 missions with the cost-saving components.

Despite numerous breakthroughs, China has yet to successfully reuse a rocket, highlighting the considerable gap between Beijing's space ambitions and the technical hurdles that remain. The significance of rocket reuse extends beyond the spectacle of returning a booster intact. Rocket reuse is essential for achieving low-cost, frequent, and sustainable launches, enabling large-scale commercial space exploration.

According to a team from three major Chinese aerospace research institutions, rocket reuse could spread the high cost of a rocket's first stage across multiple missions, offering substantial cost advantages. However, China still lags behind the US in terms of cost-effective reusability, with Chinese launch services costing approximately US$20,000 per kilogram of payload, compared to SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 at roughly US$2,700 to US$3,000 per kilogram.

To address this gap, China is exploring various approaches to booster recovery, including recovery using parachutes, wings, or deployable landing legs. In July, China successfully employed a net-capture system to retrieve part of a Long March-10B reusable rocket following its maiden launch. This offshore method offers several advantages, such as reduced landing point accuracy requirements, lower structural demands on the booster, and greater flexibility for offshore recovery platforms.

Nevertheless, China still needs to establish a comprehensive technical framework for rocket reuse, including standards, inspection procedures, and rules governing component replacement. While China has made progress in demonstrating its ability to recover boosters, the next crucial step is proving its capability to relaunch them, paving the way for its commercial space ambitions.