BEIJING: A Chinese space start-up recovered the first stage of a rocket on land on Wednesday morning, hailed by state media as a first for the country and a “breakthrough” in its reusable spacecraft technology.

Beijing has invested billions of dollars in its space programme in recent years to achieve what President Xi Jinping calls China’s “space dream”.

The Zhuque-3 rocket, developed by start-up LandSpace, blasted off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone in northwestern China at 7:35am on Wednesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The first stage, referring to the bottommost part of the rocket, was later successfully recovered, “touching down smoothly”, Xinhua said.

With this development, LandSpace has joined SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only private companies to land an orbital-class booster and has narrowed China’s gap with the US in reusable rockets.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed it steadily descending onto a landing site in the desert, its deployable legs unfolding to set itself down.

The second stage of the rocket, located above the first stage, sent the Honghu-03 satellite into orbit, Xinhua said, lauding the mission as “a complete success”.

Space experts said LandSpace was the first company outside the United States to land an orbital-class booster “on its own legs”.

“LandSpace’s successful landing is a major milestone for China’s commercial space sector,” said Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Australia’s Macquarie University.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2026