Chinese startup LandSpace on Wednesday recovered the first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket, joining SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only private companies to land an orbital-class booster and narrowing China's gap with the U.S. in reusable rockets.
The ability to return, recover and reuse a booster is crucial to reduce cost and make it easier to put satellites into orbit, turning space exploration into a commercially viable business similar to civil aviation.
