China's Landspace Successfully Completes Reusable Rocket Flight Test... Targeting Orbital Launch in 2025

Zhuque-3 in Propelled Landing and Descent at Jiuquan on September 11

Chinese private rocket development company Landspace has made remarkable progress in the development of reusable launch vehicles.

On the 11th, Landspace successfully completed a flight test of the "Zhuque-3 VTVL-1" rocket for vertical take-off and landing (VTVL) at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

This rocket uses methane and liquid oxygen as fuel and reached a maximum altitude of 10,002 meters during a flight lasting about 200 seconds.

Zhuque-3 VTVL-1 burned its engine for 113 seconds after takeoff to reach the target altitude, after which it stopped the engine and continued flying using fins for attitude adjustment.

For landing, the rocket's engine was reignited at an altitude of 4,640 meters, and it successfully landed at a location 3.2 km away from the takeoff point. The landing point was within a margin of error of 1.7 meters from the intended location.

Landspace had already conducted a vertical take-off and landing test on January 19, 2023, with a maximum altitude of 350 meters at that time.

In contrast, this test showed significant technical progress, with a greatly increased flight time of 200 seconds.

Landspace is aiming for the first orbital launch of the Zhuque-3 rocket in 2025.

Initially, it will be a disposable launch, with recovery and reuse of the first stage planned for 2026.

This rocket is a two-stage methane-fueled rocket made of stainless steel, capable of launching up to 21 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit.

It is expected to launch up to 18.3 tons of cargo when reused.

Meanwhile, Landspace is also actively participating in a massive satellite constellation project.

Shanghai Blue Arrow Aerospace Technology Co., where Landspace is the largest shareholder, proposed a project for a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation "Honghu-3" consisting of 10,000 satellites to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).