The maiden flight of LandSpace’s next-generation Zhuque-3 ended in failure, dashing the Chinese firm’s hopes of becoming the third company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to successfully test a reusable rocket.
The rocket was not able to complete the crucial controlled landing following an initial launch, state news agency Xinhua reported yesterday.
“An abnormal combustion event occurred during the process, preventing a soft landing on the recovery pad,” Xinhua said.
“The recovery test failed and the specific cause is still under investigation.”
The failure of Zhuque-3’s maiden flight highlights the difficulty of developing a rocket that can be recovered and reused after being launched into orbit.
A Chinese reusable orbital rocket, if successfully brought to market, would accelerate Beijing’s growth in space, allowing for a quicker cadence of missions and lower launch costs as the country pushes to deploy large satellite constellations to rival SpaceX’s Starlink.
SpaceX pioneered commercial rocket reusability about a decade ago with its workhorse Falcon 9, disrupting an established US launch industry that relied primarily on expendable boosters that are discarded in the ocean or remain in space after their mission.
The reusable Falcon 9 core stage allowed SpaceX to start launching its Starlink satellites in 2019 far faster than its rivals, becoming the world’s largest operator the following year. — Reuters
