China fails test of reusable rocket Vermillion Bird-3

Xinhua news agency quoted an announcement saying that the reusable Vermillion Bird-3 rocket experienced an abnormal fire during landing, preventing the vehicle from making a soft landing at the recovery site.

According to Xinhua News Agency, on December 3, China launched a reusable rocket, named Zhuque-3, developed by Chinese private company LandSpace, from the country's northwest region.

The rocket's second stage entered its intended orbit, but recovery of the first stage failed.

The rocket “experienced an abnormal fire during landing, preventing the vehicle from making a soft landing at the recovery site. The specific cause is still being analyzed and investigated,” Xinhua news agency quoted a statement as saying.

International observers say that although the first flight of Chu Tuoc-3 failed, it still shows that LandSpace is ahead of domestic competitors such as iSpace, Galactic Energy or Deep Blue Aerospace - units that are still developing smaller systems or at a less complete stage.

This is also the first time a Chinese company has come close to a reusable vehicle with the same capabilities as SpaceX's Falcon 9.

If successfully commercialized, a reusable orbital rocket developed by China would help speed up the deployment of space missions, reduce launch costs and support ambitions to build large satellite constellations to compete with SpaceX's Starlink network./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/trung-quoc-that-bai-trong-thu-nghiem-ten-lua-tai-su-dung-chu-tuoc-3-post1080822.vnp