That’s no Falcon 9
The Chinese companies that master reusable rocketry first will have an advantage in the Chinese launch industry. A handful of rockets appear to be poised to take this advantage, beginning with LandSpace’s Zhuque-3.
In its first iteration, the Zhuque-3 rocket will be capable of placing a payload of up to 17,600 pounds (8 metric tons) into low-Earth orbit after accounting for the fuel reserves required for booster recovery. The entire rocket stands about 216 feet (65.9 meters) tall.
The first stage has nine TQ-12A engines consuming methane and liquid oxygen, producing more than 1.6 million pounds of thrust at full throttle. The second stage is powered by a single methane-fueled TQ-15A engine with about 200,000 pounds of thrust. These are the same engines LandSpace has successfully flown on the smaller Zhuque-2 rocket.
LandSpace eventually plans to debut an upgraded Zhuque-3 carrying more propellant and using more powerful engines, raising its payload capacity to more than 40,000 pounds (18.3 metric tons) in reusable mode, or a few tons more with an expendable booster.
From the outside, LandSpace’s new rocket looks a lot like the vehicle it is trying to emulate: SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Like the Falcon 9, the Zhuque-3 booster’s nine-engine design also features four deployable landing legs and grid fins to help steer the rocket toward landing.
But LandSpace also incorporates elements from SpaceX’s much heavier Starship rocket. The primary structure of the Zhuque-3 is made of stainless steel, and its engines burn methane fuel, not kerosene like the Falcon 9.
The Zhuque-3 booster’s landing legs are visible here, folded up against the rocket’s stainless steel fuselage.
Credit:
LandSpace
In preparation for the debut of the Zhuque-3, LandSpace engineers built a prototype rocket for launch and landing demonstrations. The testbed aced a flight to 10 kilometers, or about 33,000 feet, in September 2024 and descended to a pinpoint vertical landing, validating the rocket’s guidance algorithms and engine restart capability.
The first of many
Another reusable booster is undergoing preflight preparations not far from LandSpace’s launch site at Jiuquan. This rocket, called the Long March 12A, comes from one of China’s established government-owned rocket firms. It could fly before the end of this year, but officials haven’t publicized a schedule.
