Zhuque-3 Y2 achieves China's first land recovery of an orbital rocket; foreign reports say the stage toppled after landing
LandSpace recovered the Zhuque-3 first stage on 19 August; NASASpaceflight says it toppled about 48 seconds after touchdown when residual propellant ignited.
At 07:35 on 19 August, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 Y2 lifted off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation test zone at Jiuquan. After the payload reached orbit, the first stage soft-landed in Minqin, Gansu, about 390 km away — China's first land recovery of an orbital-class rocket. According to company figures cited by Tencent News, the vehicle is 66.1 m tall and 4.5 m in diameter with a liftoff mass of about 570 tonnes; the first stage carries nine Tianque-12A engines and accounts for roughly 70% of vehicle cost. The company said it plans to "re-fly a reused rocket within six months". Domestic coverage uniformly described the landing as a successful soft landing.
NASASpaceflight reported on 23 August, however, that residual liquid methane and oxygen at the base of the stage ignited after landing, burning through one carbon-fibre landing leg; the stage toppled about 48 seconds after touchdown. Spaceflight Now also noted social-media video showing a fire at the aft end. That means this particular stage is unlikely to fly again directly, and the six-month reuse target will depend on the recovery outcome of the next vehicle. For LandSpace, currently in the STAR Market IPO queue, the reuse schedule is directly tied to how its RMB 7.5 billion raise will be spent; according to Tencent News, the company had 2025 revenue of RMB 52.10 million, a net loss of RMB 1.711 billion, and expects profitability no earlier than 2029.
Our take: reaching orbit and landing puts LandSpace among a handful of companies worldwide, and the topple does not diminish the milestone. But the silence in domestic coverage about the post-landing state leaves the reuse timeline without a credible benchmark to check against.