By Eduardo Baptista and Joey RouletteBEIJING/WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The maiden test of LandSpace’s next-generation Zhuque-3 rocket ended in failure on Wednesday, dashing the Chinese firm’s hopes of becoming the third company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to successfully test a reusable spacecraft.The rocket was not able to complete a controlled landing following an initial launch, state news agency Xinhua reported.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”An abnormal combustion event occurred during the process, preventing a soft landing on the recovery pad,” Xinhua said. “The recovery test failed and the specific cause is still under further analysis and investigation.”Zhuque-3’s failed landing attempt highlights the difficulty of developing a rocket that can be recovered and reused after being launched into orbit. LandSpace said in a statement that it would use data collected during the flight to optimize its rocket recovery.China’s first domestically developed reusable orbital rocket, if successfully brought to market, would accelerate Beijing’s growth in space, allowing for a quicker cadence of missions and lower launch costs as the country pushes to deploy large satellite constellations to rival SpaceX’s Starlink.”As low-orbit constellation deployment accelerates, Zhuque-3 will continue to … progress from recovery demonstrations to routine reuse and toward airline-style operational cadence, contributing to China’s space-power objectives,” LandSpace said.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCHASING SPACEXSpaceX pioneered commercial rocket reusability about a decade ago with its workhorse Falcon 9, disrupting an established U.S. launch industry that relied primarily on expendable boosters that are discarded in the ocean or remain in space after their mission.The reusable Falcon 9 core stage allowed SpaceX to start launching its Starlink satellites in 2019 far faster than its rivals, becoming the world’s largest operator the following year and disrupting the global satellite communications industry.In October, Musk praised Zhuque-3’s design, saying on X that the Chinese rocket could even beat Falcon 9. LandSpace said on Wednesday that once mature, Zhuque-3 can be reused at least 20 ti …
