# Up Close: Inside China's First Land Based Rocket Recovery Site

> The Zhuque 3 Y2 rocket lifted off from Jiuquan on Wednesday, and six minutes later its first stage landed upright on a concrete pad in Minqin, Gansu province, marking China's first successful land recovery of a rocket booster. We visited the landing site on the edge of the Gobi Desert.

- Source: Times of China (Times of China)
- Canonical URL: https://timesofchina.cn.com/en/article/china-first-land-rocket-recovery
- Chinese edition: https://timesofchina.cn.com/article/china-first-land-rocket-recovery
- Author: 中国时报编辑部
- Section: Technology
- Published: 2026-08-19T22:00:00+08:00
- Updated: 2026-08-19T22:00:00+08:00
- Tags: 朱雀三号, 蓝箭航天, 可重复使用火箭, 商业航天, 酒泉

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China has achieved its first successful land based recovery of a rocket booster. At 7:35 am on Wednesday, the Zhuque 3 Y2 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and six minutes later its first stage, more than 40 meters tall, landed upright on a concrete pad in Minqin county, Gansu province.

## A close look at the landing pad

We visited the site, set on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Landing upright on solid ground demands far greater precision than a traditional sea landing, and it means the booster can be retrieved, inspected and readied for reuse much faster, a step widely seen as a sign that reusable rocket technology in China is maturing.

The Zhuque 3 Y2 rocket used in the mission was built by LandSpace, a private Chinese rocket company, and the recovery marks the latest step in a wave of reusable launch vehicle tests by the country's commercial space sector. The new land route between the Jiuquan launch site and the Minqin landing pad also gives outside observers a clearer view of how far Chinese commercial rocket firms have come on cost control and launch frequency.

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Originally published by Times of China. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://timesofchina.cn.com/en/article/china-first-land-rocket-recovery.