❯ LandSpace Zhuque-3 Y2 completes China’s first land recovery of an orbital-class rocket

RECOVERYLandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Pilot Zone on August 19. About 137 seconds into flight, the first and second stages separated, and the second stage precisely delivered the Honghu-03 satellite into orbit. At 07:41, the first stage successfully soft-landed at the landing site in Minqin, Gansu. This is China’s first land recovery of an orbital-class rocket first stage, and the first controlled land recovery using landing-leg technology, filling a gap in this technical field.

TECHThe Y2 uses a “liquid-oxygen methane + stainless-steel airframe + landing legs” configuration. During the Y1’s maiden flight, the final landing-burn ignition failed. The Y2 took that lesson on board: it reduced the number of landing-burn engines to simplify the system and lower control difficulty, and added landing-point prediction safety control. The first stage is designed for reuse over 20 times; officially, that can cut the cost per launch by over 60%.

REUSEThe airframe is currently at a critical stage of engineering reuse; inspections and assessments will follow, and the team is simultaneously optimizing the rapid post-recovery inspection process, with the goal of compressing the reuse cycle to within 30 days. LandSpace plans to fly the recovered airframe again within six months, completing the “launch-recovery-inspection-reuse” closed loop. All domestic satellite-constellation operators that have planned around expendable-rocket pricing will need to redo their math — the cost-per-kilogram-to-orbit baseline is moving.

▪ SIGNALLanding is just the passing line; flying again within 30 days is what truly earns a ticket to the cost curve.