The maiden flight of LandSpace's next-generation Zhuque-3 ended in failure on Wednesday, 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.
"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 further analysis and 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, Reuters reported.
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 and disrupting the global satellite communications industry.
In October, Musk praised Zhuque-3's design, saying on X that the Chinese rocket could even beat Falcon 9.
But the gap is still wide and there is no guarantee that LandSpace will catch up. SpaceX had its first successful Falcon booster landing in 2015 after two failed attempts. Much of the global rocket industry has since gradually sought to mimic the company's reusability model.
Nevertheless, Zhuque-3's maiden flight puts LandSpace ahead of domestic rivals like iSpace, Galactic Energy and Deep Blue Aerospace, which are working on smaller or less mature systems. And it marks the first time that a Chinese firm has come close to a Falcon 9-class reusable vehicle.
