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LandSpace achieves first successful land recovery of orbital-class booster in China

LandSpace successfully landed the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket on a land pad in northwest China on Tuesday. This milestone marks the first time a Chinese company has recovered an orbital-class booster on land, narrowing the competitive gap between China and the United States. While SpaceX remains the dominant leader in reusable rocketry, the successful landing of the Zhuque-3 booster demonstrates China's growing launch capability and a deeper bench of competing companies. The Zhuque-3 rocket, a 216-foot-tall vehicle, can lift approximately 40,350 pounds of cargo to low earth orbit. In contrast, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has a single-stage payload capacity of 10,000 pounds more. Although SpaceX has performed over 600 successful booster landings, LandSpace is now entering the market for reusable rockets. This achievement provides a significant opportunity for the American rocket industry, as SpaceX plans to wind down the Falcon 9 rocket soon. As the Falcon 9 is phased out, other American companies like Rocket Lab and Stoke Space will have an opening in the market for medium- to heavy-class rockets.

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