China's reusable carrier rocket fails to complete maiden test

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China’s reusable carrier rocket Wednesday failed to complete its maiden test, state media reported.

The “second stage” of the Zhuque-3 Y1 rocket entered the designated orbit “but the recovery of its first stage failed,” state-run Xinhua News reported.

Produced by Beijing-based commercial aerospace company LandSpace, the methane-fueled launch vehicle failed to achieve the planned soft landing during its first-stage recovery test.

It suffered “abnormal combustion occurred during descent,” according to LandSpace.

“The anomaly occurred during the recovery verification test and prevented the booster from touching down on the designated pad. The cause of the abnormal combustion is under investigation,” it added, according to Shanghai Daily reported.

Developers had launched the rocket from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone around noon, local time, on Wednesday.

So far, only two US-based space companies, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, have successfully tested a reusable rocket.

“Although this mission did not achieve the planned first-stage recovery objective, it successfully validated the correctness and rationality of the overall ZQ-3 carrier rocket test, launch, and flight process schemes, as well as the compatibility of interfaces across all systems,” according to daily Global Times. “The flight provided critical engineering data under real flight conditions, laying an important foundation for subsequent launch services and reliable, reusable first-stage recovery.”