LandSpace ZhuQue-3 Reached Orbit, But First Stage Exploded During Landing

The maiden flight of LandSpace’s ZhuQue-3 rocket on December 3 was one for the books… for both its successes and failures. The rocket reached orbit before the first stage booster recovery attempt resulted in an explosion near the edge of the landing pad.

ZhuQue-3 is a two-stage reusable vehicle capable of placing more than 18 metric tons into low Earth orbit when recovered. Its methane-fueled, stainless-steel launcher propelled it off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on December 3 for its first and only flight to date.

The good news? ZhuQue-3 completed all but one of its primary mission objectives. It successfully separated its stages, deployed its fairing, and delivered its expendable second stage to orbit using a Tianque-15A vacuum engine restart. The booster also checked off most recovery steps, including engine throttling, attitude control, and return-to-launch-site guidance. The mission marked the first flight of LandSpace’s next-generation launcher and the company’s most ambitious test to date.

The bad news is the one objective it failed to achieve: the planned vertical landing of the first stage. According to LandSpace, the booster reentered as expected, ignited its engines for the landing burn, and approached the designated pad with high accuracy. Moments before touchdown, however, “an anomaly occurred as the first stage approached the designated recovery zone,” resulting in a fireball that scattered debris just meters from the pad. No injuries were reported.

All in all, LandSpace marked the test as a success, noting that China’s first rocket recovery was just part of the process to prove the performance of its reusability systems.

ZhuQue-3’s design is a fraternal twin to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with nine Tianque-12A methalox engines powering its reusable first stage and an expendable upper stage providing orbital insertion. The rocket is constructed largely from stainless steel, a similarity to SpaceX’s Starship program, and is intended for at least 20 reuses per booster. Its payload capacity of 18.3 metric tons to low Earth orbit places it in the same class as Falcon 9.

The attempt comes as the industry faces rapid growth in reusable launch vehicle competition. Blue Origin recently accomplished the first landing of its New Glenn booster, and the European Space Agency’s Themis demonstrator completed its initial pad rollout in Sweden earlier this year. LandSpace previously made headlines in 2023 when its ZhuQue-2 became the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit.

FMI: www.landspace.com