China's Zhuque-3 tries another first-stage landing on August 11 after December explosion

Chinese private space company LandSpace will make its second attempt to launch and land the reusable Zhuque-3 rocket on August 11 at 2:45 AM Moscow time. The launch is scheduled from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwestern China. This will be China's fourth attempt to recover a spent booster.

LandSpace's first try in December 2025 ended in partial success: the second stage reached orbit, but the first stage exploded during its final descent to the landing pad. In June 2026, the company conducted static fire tests, after which it said all systems worked normally and the data met expectations.

The 66-meter-tall Zhuque-3 runs on methane-oxygen engines and is comparable in capability to SpaceX's Falcon 9. It can deliver up to 18,300 kg of payload to low Earth orbit.

Of China's three previous booster recovery attempts, only one succeeded. In December 2025, Zhuque-3 lost its first stage; days later, the debut flight of Long March 12A met a similar fate — the rocket reached orbit, but a fire broke out during stage return. However, on July 10, 2026, China achieved a historic result: the Long March 10B rocket successfully landed an orbital booster using a net-equipped capture device. This made the country only the second in the world, after the United States, to recover a booster from an orbital mission.