Chinese Enterprise Blue Arrow Space first After the Zhuque-3 orbital rocket was fully launched into space, the first stage landed successfully. The rocket was launched from the Dongfeng Commercial Launch Site near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 02:35 Moscow time on August 19. The second stage completed the task of placing the payload into orbit, and the first stage returned to the site after separation.
Image source: CCTV
After separation, the first stage deployed for a controlled return and vertical landing at a site in Gansu Province, approximately 390 kilometers from the launch site. This is the first successful landing of an orbital-class rocket from China’s private space program, and the first time such a Chinese booster has landed on land using its own landing legs.
The Suzaku-3 rocket is a two-stage, partially reusable rocket, about 66 meters tall, with an overall structure and size similar to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Its main body is mainly made of stainless steel, and its propulsion system uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel. The first stage is equipped with nine engines and is capable of braking, controlled atmospheric descent and landing with the engines running after completing the main part of the flight. Unlike the Falcon 9, which runs on kerosene and oxygen, the Suzaku 3’s methane fuel produces less soot and sediment in the engine, which may make the engine easier to maintain when reused. Blue Arrow Aerospace expects to increase the service life of the first stage to 20 times.
This launch is the second flight of the Zhuque-3 rocket. In the first mission in December 2025, the second stage successfully entered orbit, but an abnormal burn occurred during the final stage of the landing maneuver, the return booster was lost, and then the stage exploded near the landing site. On its second flight, Blue Arrow successfully completed the entire cycle – from launch and stage separation to controlled descent, final engine start and stable vertical landing. The company sees the results as a shift from demonstrating standalone technologies to the engineering development of full-fledged reusable transportation systems.
This is China’s second successful orbital-stage booster return mission. On July 10, the state-run China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)’s Long March 10B rocket landed on an offshore platform, but with a different plan: The platform was intercepted by a system of cables and nets using special hooks. The Zhuque-3 rocket is China’s first rocket to use retractable legs for a classic landing, similar to the Falcon 9 design. The Blue Arrow space program plans to restart the recovery phase within the next six months. If successful, the company will demonstrate not only a landing but also actual reuse of an orbital booster — a key step toward lowering costs and increasing launch frequency.
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