ZQ-3 Y1 rocket took off for maiden flight from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone at noon time on December 3, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of LandSpace

Chinese private space company LandSpace confirmed with the Global Times on Wednesday that it plans to conduct another recovery test of its Zhuque-3 reusable rocket in the second quarter of this year.

LandSpace has drawn growing public attention for its technological advances. According to the Xinhua News Agency, the company successfully launched the Zhuque-3 reusable rocket on December 3. The rocket's second stage managed to enter the designated orbit, but recovery of its first stage failed.

The company revealed to attendees at a recent meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space that it is optimizing the landing process and plans to conduct another recovery test in the second quarter of 2026. It aims to attempt the first recovery and reuse flight in the fourth quarter, depending on the results of that test, according to the company's official WeChat account.

A company representative confirmed the plan of the launch with the Global Times on Wednesday, adding that the rocket to be used in the upcoming test is of the same configuration as the one used in the December launch, albeit with some fine-tuning based on data from that mission.

Should the second-quarter test be a success, the recovery and reuse flight in the fourth quarter will use the recovered first stage, the representative said.

In an interview in December, Dong Kai, deputy chief designer of the Zhuque-3 reusable rocket, told the Global Times that the rocket was expected to achieve a successful recovery by mid-2026, with plans to evolve into its "full configuration" within the year.

After that, the company's research and development focus will shift toward shortening the launch cycle and increasing the launch frequency, Dong said.

The Zhuque-3 is a homegrown liquid oxygen-methane-powered rocket engineered for low-cost, high-capacity and frequent launches.

According to a People's Daily Online report, the Zhuque-3 rocket will be reused no less than 20 times based on design plans, the company said. 

The ultimate goal of Zhuque-3 is to reduce the cost of rocket launches in China from about 100,000 yuan (about $13,928) per kilogram to about 20,000 yuan per kilogram.

China has been making steady progress in reusable rocket recovery.

On February 13, China completed its first maritime recovery of a rocket booster, with the first stage of a Long March-10 carrier rocket retrieved from the sea. The milestone marked an advancement of reusable launch vehicle technologies, Xinhua reported, citing the China Manned Space Agency.

Industry experts said that this year could bear witness to a series of major milestones in the development of China's commercial space industry, including the start of commercial operations for low-Earth-orbit constellations.

"The next critical step is to develop and mature reusable launch technology, build out supporting infrastructure and enabling systems, move beyond traditional project-based models toward a more collaborative ecosystem, and translate technological advances into deployable, market-ready products and services - so as to unlock the sector's commercial potential and deliver tangible economic and public-service benefits," Yang Kewei, executive deputy director of the Commercial Space Research Center, China Center for Information Industry Development, told the Global Times on Wednesday.