Overview
- CASC confirmed the rocket’s upper stage reached its planned orbit after liftoff from Jiuquan, while the methane-fueled first stage was not recovered on the maiden flight.
- The booster targeted a landing site about 250 kilometers downrange in Minqin county, with satellite and local imagery indicating a miss by roughly a couple of kilometers.
- The attempt marked China’s second failed booster recovery this month, following LandSpace’s Zhuque-3, which also achieved orbit before crashing during its landing burn on December 3.
- State media and CASC said the flight yielded critical engineering data and that a comprehensive technical review will assess the landing failure to refine recovery plans.
- Reusable launch is a priority to lower costs and support planned megaconstellations, with China benchmarking U.S. achievements by SpaceX and Blue Origin; CASC is preparing Long March 10 reusable tests in 2026, and a LandSpace executive now targets a successful booster recovery in mid-2026 on Zhuque-3’s second flight.