spacetoday.net: Landspace lands Zhuque-3 booster on second flight

Posted: Sat, Aug 22, 2026, 7:46 AM ET (1146 GMT)
Chinese launch company Landspace successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket for the first time in a flight Tuesday evening. The rocket lifted off at 7:35 p.m. Eastern from the commercial space zone at the national Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. After stage separation, the first stage completed a powered descent and vertical landing at a landing site about 390 kilometers downrange. The landing is China's second booster recovery, occurring just over a month after China became the second country to recover an orbital booster with the Long March 10B, that time using a drone vessel at sea equipped with a net-capture system. This was the second launch of the medium-class rocket, which successfully reached orbit on its first flight last December but failed to land the booster. This launch placed into orbit Honghu 03, a satellite built by Landspace's satellite manufacturing affiliate, Hongqing Technology.