China Successfully Recovers Rocket First Stage on Land for the First Time
China successfully recovers the first stage of a rocket on land.
Translated by Qiyas from الجريدة — Original source
State media reported on Wednesday that China successfully recovered the first stage of a rocket on land for the first time, as part of the country’s efforts to develop its space program.
Although this marks China’s first successful on-land recovery, it is the second time the country has recovered a rocket stage, following a successful recovery on a sea platform in July.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the reusable “Chang Zheng-3” rocket was launched on Wednesday morning, and its first stage was subsequently recovered.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin have been recovering rockets since 2015, helping to reduce launch costs by reusing equipment that would otherwise have been discarded after delivering satellites and other payloads to space.
Xinhua stated that today’s recovery also marked China’s first use of deployable landing legs, describing the outcome as a “major breakthrough in the country’s reusable rocket technology.”
