China's Historic Leap: Zhuque-3 Achieves First Successful Land-Based Rocket Recovery

On the morning of August 19, 2026, China achieved a monumental milestone in aerospace engineering with the successful launch and recovery of the Zhuque-3 reusable rocket. The mission, which lifted off at 7:35 AM Beijing time from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwestern China, marked the nation's first controlled land-based recovery of a rocket's first stage using…