China has achieved a major breakthrough in reusable rocket technology with the successful land-based recovery of a rocket’s first stage.

The Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket lifted off at 7:35 a.m. Wednesday from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone in northwest China. Its first stage was successfully recovered on land as planned, marking the country’s first controlled land-based recovery of a rocket stage using deployable landing legs.

The successful mission demonstrates significant progress in China’s development of reusable launch vehicles and is expected to strengthen the country’s capabilities in commercial spaceflight.

The achievement follows the successful sea-based net recovery of the Long March-10B’s first stage on July 10, marking another important step towards more efficient and sustainable space launches.