LandSpace Lands Its First Orbital Rocket Booster on Land
LandSpace landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket after an orbital launch, the Chinese company said, about six minutes after the vehicle left the pad with a satellite aboard.
The Zhuque-3 Y2 lifted off at 7:35 a.m. Beijing time on Aug. 19, or 23:35 UTC on Aug. 18, from the Dongfeng commercial spaceflight zone in northwestern China, according to LandSpace's own flight report. The two stages separated about 137 seconds later. The first stage flew a powered descent and, at about 7:41 a.m., set down on deployable landing legs at the company's recovery site in Minqin County, in Gansu province.
The second stage continued to orbit. Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported that it delivered a satellite, Honghu-03, into its planned orbit. LandSpace named the satellite's builder as Hongqing Technology.
Xinhua described the Zhuque-3 Y2 as a reusable rocket burning liquid oxygen and methane, 66.1 meters long in a single-core, two-stage configuration, and approved by the China National Space Administration "as a new-generation liquid oxygen-methane-powered rocket."
Both accounts also carry evaluations, which are theirs rather than measurements. LandSpace called the flight a "complete success" and said it was China's first soft landing of an orbital rocket's first stage using landing legs, and the country's first recovery of such a stage on the ground. Xinhua called the flight a "major breakthrough in the country's reusable rocket technology." Neither characterization has an independent assessment attached to it.
LandSpace said the flight moves the Zhuque-3 program out of technology demonstration and into what it called an engineering verification phase, and that the recovered stage is meant for inspection and maintenance before any reuse flight.
