China’s commercial reusable rocket completes takeoff and landing flight test

China’s independently developed Zhuque-3 reusable test rocket successfully completed a 10-kilometer vertical takeoff and landing flight test at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Wednesday.

This is a significant advancement in the country’s commercial space sector, marking a crucial step toward realizing high-capacity, low-cost, high-frequency and reusable space launches in the future, according to the rocket’s developer, LandSpace, a private Chinese rocket company.

The test procedure included climb, engine shutdown, glide shutdown, in-flight engine restart, and soft landing, with all performance indicators meeting expected design specifications.

The test rocket is a single-stage liquid oxygen-methane vehicle with a diameter of 3 meters and a length of 18 meters that uses the same high-strength stainless steel structure as the Zhuque-3 rocket.