Chinese Commercial Space Startup Lands Reusable Orbital Rocket Stage in Milestone Test
China commercial space sector reached a major technological threshold today as private launch operator LandSpace successfully recovered a full-scale first-stage orbital rocket booster via vertical powered landing. The milestone places China among an elite group of spacefaring nations with proven vertical rocket recovery capabilities.
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The test booster, powered by liquid methane and oxygen engines, launched to an altitude of 100 kilometers before executing a grid-fin hypersonic re-entry maneuver and lighting its central engine cluster for a soft touchdown on a coastal landing pad.
Aerospace analysts project that commercial reusability in China will rapidly lower launch costs for mega-constellation satellite deployments, intensifying global competition in low-Earth orbit satellite internet.