<\/p>\n
China said it recovered a rocket booster on land for the first time, a major step toward catching up with US firms like Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n
A Zhuque-3 rocket landed on its legs in the northwestern province of Gansu after helping send a satellite into orbit on Wednesday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The rocket took off from Jiuquan, one of China\u2019s main space launch centres.<\/p>\n
A video clip posted online showed the rocket tapering back on thrust to touch down gently on special legs, which should allow it to be reused.<\/p>\n
The landing comes after China performed one at sea in July, successes that highlight the nation\u2019s progress in space tech, despite setbacks like a rocket exploding during launch earlier this month.<\/p>\n
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\u201cLandSpace\u2019s successful booster recovery with the Zhuque-3 is a watershed moment for China\u2019s commercial space sector,\u201d said Eric Zhu, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.<\/p>\n
The Zhuque-3 is developed by LandSpace Technology, a Chinese commercial launch provider that applied to list shares in Shanghai last year. The startup is racing to catch up to SpaceX and Blue Origin LLC, which is backed by Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n
SpaceX has been recovering and recycling the boosters of its Falcon 9 rockets since 2017, helping it grab a near-monopoly in heavy-lift rocket launches and supporting the growth of its thousands of Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s spurred a push in China, which is in the early stages of building a similar internet satellite network. That effort has relied on single-use rockets to put satellites into orbit.<\/p>\n
LandSpace is one of the leading startups to emerge in the decade since the Chinese government opened the industry to the private sector. In 2023, it became the first company in the world to launch a rocket fuelled by methane, which has potential to be cleaner and safer than other fuels.<\/p>\n
Zhu said LandSpace \u201cnow faces the tougher engineering challenge of demonstrating it can rapidly and cost-effectively refurbish and refly that hardware \u2014 a process that took SpaceX several years to master.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#China #lands #rocket #earth #push #catch #SpaceX<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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