China has gained pace in the space race by recovering rockets – but can it relaunch one?
Por Wency Chen,Ben Jiang — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement US-China tech war Tech Tech Trends In Focus China has gained pace in the space race by recovering rockets – but can it relaunch one?
SpaceX might have a head start in reusable rockets, but Chinese commercial space companies are exploring ways to catch up in the cost-saving tech
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Wency Chen in Wenchang, Hainan and Ben Jiang in Beijing Published: 6:00am, 18 Sep 2026 Updated: 6:36am, 18 Sep 2026
As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the second part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Ben Jiang examine the country’s strategy and progress on reusable rockets – a field where the US has a tremendous lead.
US commercial space firm SpaceX has been eager to tout its deployment of reusable first-stage rocket boosters, claiming to have flown more than 600 missions with the cost-cutting launch components.
Despite a succession of breakthroughs in booster-recovery efforts in recent months, both on land and at sea, China has yet to reuse one – a stark contrast laying bare the gap between Beijing’s space ambitions and the challenges that remain.
Last month, Chinese private aerospace company LandSpace landed the booster of its Zhuque-3 rocket on deployable landing legs at a site in the northwestern province of Gansu, marking the country’s first successful ground-based controlled recovery using landing legs, an approach that closely resembles that of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x 1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:00 00:00 1x AI-generated voice
