China fails second attempt at reusable rocket test, falling further behind the U.S.
Beijing suffered yet another disappointment as the first stage of Long March 12A—China's first state-owned reusable rocket—could not be successfully recovered after launch. The second stage of the rocket, however, did get deployed in its planned orbit, according to the report of the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. This was China's second failed attempt at returning an orbital-class booster to Earth this month.
Designed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the rocket made its debut flight at 10 am local time on 23 December from the Jiuquan Satellite Centre in northwest China. The CASC did not disclose the details about why the recovery failed, saying that it was carrying out "a comprehensive review of the entire test process" and that it would sincerely attempt to get to the bottom of what went wrong. While the attempt to recover the booster did end in disappointment, the CASC did say via its official WeChat account that the mission obtained "key engineering data from the rocket under real flight conditions, laying an important foundation for subsequent launches and for the reliable recovery of stages."
China has been successful in launching dozens of rockets that deliver payloads into orbit but has failed to complete a reusable rocket test. Private and state-owned rocket firms in China are working steadily towards testing domestically developed reusable rockets. Earlier this month, Landscape, a private Chinese firm, attempted a reusable rocket test with the launch of Zhuque-3, but could not land the booster successfully. "Its first-stage booster suffered anomalous combustion during recovery, failing to achieve a soft touchdown on the landing pad," Xinhua reported. "The recovery test was unsuccessful, and the specific cause is under investigation."
Mastering reusable rocket technology can significantly lower mission costs and reduce turnaround time. So far, the United States is the only country to return an orbital-class booster, with Elon Musk's SpaceX having mastered this technology years ago and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin following suit. In fact, SpaceX's reusable rocket Falcon 9 has resulted in Starlink satellites occupying a large section of the low-Earth satellite population.
Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket can take paying passengers on a ride to space and then return to land. But while New Shepard's booster does land vertically on Earth after taking flight, it is not fast enough to reach orbit. Last month, however, Blue Origin did become the second company to have successfully achieved orbital-class booster reuse following the second mission of its New Glenn rocket. Other companies have also achieved some level of reusability.
For instance, Rocket Lab, which operates out of the U.S. and New Zealand, has managed to make a part of its Electron rocket reusable. Some of the recovered engines that have dropped back into the ocean using a parachute have been used on later flights. Private Chinese firms other than Landspace have also carried out reusability tests, but are yet to land the main stage of a rocket that has actually flown into space.
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