China Recovers Rocket Stage on Land for First Time

China has successfully recovered the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, state media reported Wednesday, as the country seeks to advance its space program.

This marks China's first successful recovery on land and is the second time the country has recovered a rocket stage, following a successful recovery on a sea platform in July. The reusable rocket, Zhuque-3, was launched Wednesday morning, and its first stage was recovered afterward, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Xinhua stated that Wednesday's recovery also marked China's first use of deployable landing legs and deemed the result “a major breakthrough in the country’s reusable rocket technology.”

Previously, on July 10, the first stage of a Long March-10B rocket separated from the second stage after liftoff and returned to a platform at sea. That recovery utilized a net-capture system.

Companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been recovering rockets since 2015, a practice that helps reduce launch costs by reusing hardware that would otherwise be discarded. Japan also conducted the first test flight of an experimental reusable rocket the day after China's sea recovery, which took off and safely landed, indicating a global push to reduce space launch costs and compete in the global market.