Chinese private company successfully returns rocket's first stage to Earth for the first time.

Chinese private company successfully returns rocket's first stage to Earth for the first time.
On August 19, 2026, the ZQ-3 rocket, developed by the Chinese private company LandSpace, successfully launched a satellite into orbit and, for the first time, successfully returned and landed the first stage on Earth.

ZQ-3 is a 66-meter, two-stage rocket. It is capable of carrying 21 tons to low Earth orbit under normal conditions, and approximately 18 tons when the first stage is recovered.
The launch cost is approximately $21 million, but when the first stage is recovered, which accounts for roughly 70-80% of the total rocket cost, the expenses are significantly reduced.

The company estimates that with five reuses, the launch cost will drop almost in half. Their goal is to reduce the cost to $2000 per kilogram of payload (compared to $8000–10000 for conventional rockets).

LandSpace was founded in 2015 and has become one of the first private Chinese space companies. August 19th marked the second test flight of the ZQ-3. During the first flight in December 2025, the stage failed to achieve a soft landing. This is the first company in the world to launch a methane-powered rocket (Zhuque-2) into orbit. The ZQ-3 rocket is equipped with engines developed in-house that run on methane and liquid oxygen.
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✨ In China, two approaches are currently being developed in parallel:
- The state-owned Long March-10B rocket (July 2026) successfully returned a stage to a sea platform.
- The private ZQ-3 (August 2026) repeated this feat on land.
LandSpace has become the fourth company in the world to successfully land the first stage of an orbital rocket, following 🇺🇸SpaceX (Falcon 9), 🇺🇸Blue Origin (New Glenn), and 🇨🇳Chang Zheng 10B. Elon Musk acknowledged that the ZQ-3 "could surpass Falcon 9" due to its use of stainless steel and methane fuel. However, he added that it would take LandSpace more than five years to achieve the launch frequency of Falcon 9, and by then, his Starship would already be "in a different league."

SpaceX currently has a much more established pace, launching Falcon 9 approximately two to three times a week and reusing the same stage dozens of times. Therefore, serious competition from China is not yet a reality, but it is only a matter of time, and Musk understands this perfectly. Another launch of the same ZQ-3 stage is expected before the end of 2026. If successful, China will take another step towards creating affordable and accessible space logistics, while maintaining competition between its state-owned and private companies.

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