China's SpaceX Rival's Rocket Goes Up In Flames — And Elon Musk Is Watching Closely

Following a dramatic failure on the maiden flight of its next-generation reusable rocket, the Zhuque-3, on 3 December 2025, the up-and-coming commercial space company LandSpace in China has attracted international interest.

Although the vehicle successfully launched its payload into orbit, the booster used in the mission failed to complete its scheduled recovery. It burst into flames during the landing, eventually crashing in the area where it was expected to land. Even the partial success marks China's first attempt to launch a reusable launch vehicle, placing new demands on the global leaders in the aerospace business.

Rival aerospace companies, such as SpaceX, which has monopolised the reusable-rocket sector for more than a decade, were paying close attention to the launch of Zhuque-3. The recent failure highlights how difficult the engineering of reusable launch vehicles is, particularly the difficulty SpaceX faced after years of trial-and-error testing and repeated failures.

China's First Attempt at Reusable Rocketry

At the vanguard of China's space commercial push is a Beijing-based private space startup, LandSpace, founded in 2015. In contrast to the more established state-owned aerospace corporations, the company has adopted the Silicon Valley philosophy of rapid iteration and failure, a philosophy publicly patterned after SpaceX's brand development.

The stainless-steel liquid-methane-fuelled rocket known as the Zhuque-3 was designed to feature a recovery-first stage that would land vertically back on Earth to reuse the technology, akin to SpaceX's reusable booster research. Despite the successful orbit insertion of the upper stage of the Zhuque-3, the reusability testing went awry when the booster made its return landing burn.

Aerospace commentators suggest, however, that the successful results of such complex tests, even partially, may be significant for future flights, and this trend recalls the initial years of reusability attempts in the United States.

Broader Implications For China's Space Industry

The Zhuque-3 result demonstrates the achievements and perspectives in China's broader struggle to compete in the global arena of commercial rocketry. Along with LandSpace's work, state-owned programmes are also testing reusable launch technology.

Collectively, these ambivalent outcomes go to demonstrate the very confusion of reusable systems: technology that, until more recently, has only been achieved at scale by SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, by Jeff Bezos. This is in stark contrast to the rarity and difficulty of such accomplishments, as in November 2025, the same booster landed at New Glenn, the first successfully reusable rocket developed by Blue Origin.

To China, the presence of private companies such as LandSpace and their competitors like Galactic Energy and Deep Blue Aerospace is important to Beijing's strategy to develop a vibrant, innovation-oriented space sector capable of offering innovative satellite constellations and desatellite itself to ease dependence on foreign launch services.

Elon Musk And The Global Race For Reusability

It is well known that SpaceX is leading the reusable launch market, and Elon Musk himself has stated that there are competitors in the space launch market, the emergence of which he personally regards as a threat. In October, Musk observed that China's emerging rockets, such as the Zhuque-3, could one day be comparable to his company's Falcon rockets, but only if the month is favourable, given SpaceX's continued development of its Starship mega-rocket.

As noted by Musk, LandSpace has combined such a high level of design aspects that it is experimenting with, including a stainless steel enclosure and methane power, which are more akin to what is happening with SpaceX in its own Starship architecture. He pointed out, though, that Starship's capabilities would not be matched once fully functional.

Next Steps For LandSpace

LandSpace executives have been aggressive despite the Zhuque-3 failure. The company is considering additional tests that should help it achieve a successful booster recovery as early as mid-2026, and preparations are underway to list on the Shanghai STAR Market to raise the capital it may require to innovate quickly.

Deputy chief designer Dong Kai has highlighted a roadmap that envisions further launches by the year 2026. Still, the intention is to continue to enhance reusability and the cost of launch, which are essential steps in case the firm wants to compete with the launch rate of SpaceX, which is currently pulling launch rates of over a hundred in a year.

With private space companies all over the planet having ever more ambitious ambitions, the latest test of non-lift off by LandSpace, explosive end and all, provides a graphic reminder of the fact that no one knows what is in store in the future of rocketry; it is competitive and characterised by innovation as a result of trial and error and perseverance.