LandSpace蓝箭航天

LandSpace builds methane-fueled rockets in Beijing and has a habit of reaching milestones first. Its Zhuque-2 was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit anywhere, in July 2023, ahead of Starship and Vulcan. The successor, Zhuque-3, is a 76 metre stainless steel rocket with nine engines on its first stage, sized to carry about 18 to 21 tonnes to low orbit depending on whether the booster comes back.

Zhang Changwu founded the company in 2015, a financier by training in a field of ex-state-academy engineers, and the bet has stayed consistent: methane, stainless steel and propulsive landing, the Falcon 9 playbook applied to China's coming constellation traffic. On August 19, 2026 the second Zhuque-3 delivered a satellite to orbit and landed its first stage 390 kilometres downrange in Gansu. That was China's first recovery of an orbital-class booster on land, and the third by any company anywhere, after SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Reuse itself is still unproven. The landed stage caught fire at its base after touchdown, no booster has flown twice, and the company says a reflight will come before the year is out. The flight record is mixed besides: two of seven Zhuque-2 family launches failed, one as recently as August 2025, and the first Zhuque-3 lost its booster during the landing attempt the previous December. An IPO application is under review on Shanghai's STAR Market, and the valuation rests squarely on the reusability story holding.