Chinese rocket completes vertical sea recovery test to boost reusable technology

A Chinese rocket startup has completed its first sea recovery test of a verification rocket, which descended vertically onto the waters off the coast of Shandong Province in eastern China.

On Thursday morning, the 26.8-meter-tall stainless steel rocket, which had a diameter of 4.2 meters and weighed 57 tonnes at liftoff, completed a 125-second flight, reaching an altitude of approximately 2.5 kilometers during its full-thrust ascent.

A video from the Beijing-based firm Space Epoch shows the rocket Yanxingzhe-1 reigniting its engine during descent, hovering above the sea surface, and then landing softly in a vertical orientation.

Post-flight data analysis confirmed the rocket performed normally throughout the test, with experts declaring the sea landing recovery a success.

It is the latest effort by Chinese aerospace companies to develop reusable rockets. In 2024, at least two domestic rockets, the Zhuque-3 and one developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, completed 10-kilometer vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tests in northwest China.

A test version of the reusable Kuaizhou rocket, developed by Expace Technology, completed a VTOL experiment with a brief flight off the ground in January 2024.

The SQX-2Y, a reusable rocket developed by i-Space, conducted two VTOL flight tests in 2023.