China's LandSpace is targeting 23:35 UTC on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 for the second flight of its stainless-steel medium-lift Zhuque-3, and the second attempt at recovering the methane-fueled first stage. The mission will lift off from Site 96B at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia, with the launch window running until 00:04 UTC on August 19.
Second Recovery Attempt After December Near-Miss
Zhuque-3's maiden mission on December 3, 2025 reached orbit, but the first stage suffered an abnormal combustion event during its landing burn and crashed near the pad. LandSpace subsequently said the flight validated the thermal protection system, aerodynamic layout, guidance algorithms and the cold-gas plus grid-fin attitude control during supersonic reentry. Flight 2 is the first real chance to close the loop and actually put a first stage back on the pad in Minqin County, Gansu.
A Chinese Answer to Falcon 9 Reuse Economics
Zhuque-3 is powered by nine TQ-12A methalox engines on the first stage and a single TQ-15A on the second stage, capable of lofting up to 11,800 kg to low Earth orbit expended, or 8,000 kg with the booster recovered downrange. LandSpace is already developing the more powerful Zhuque-3E variant, targeting 21,300 kg to LEO with a booster designed for up to 20 flights. The company is positioning the family as the workhorse for China's Guowang broadband megaconstellation and the Haolong reusable cargo spaceplane bound for the Tiangong Space Station.
Racing A Crowded Chinese Reusable Field
A successful landing would put LandSpace ahead of Chinese rivals Space Pioneer, Deep Blue Aerospace and CAS Space in demonstrating orbital-class reusability, and would be the first non-Western first-stage recovery on record. It would also fit into a busy end-of-August Chinese launch cadence that includes SpaceX Falcon 9 flights out of Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral, giving investors a rare, direct comparison between reusable methalox and kerolox architectures. LandSpace's next-generation BF-20 full-flow staged-combustion engine is slated to be flight-ready by 2028 for future Zhuque-3 upgrades.
Reporting based on coverage from Space Launch Schedule, SpaceNews, NASASpaceflight, South China Morning Post and Xinhua dated August 5-17, 2026.