Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 16, 2025

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

In mid-June China’s largest and most successful “private” space company Landspace (or Blue Arrow Space Technology) revealed its ambition to build a 10-meter diameter reusable space launch vehicle (SLV) perhaps by 2030 — a potential great prize for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) controlled space program.

Founded only in 2015, Landspace, has not heavily promoted its 10-meter SLV like its ongoing Zhuque-2, the world’s first methane powered rocket that put 6 tons into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), or the 23 ton to LEO Zhuque-3 that could become China’s first reusable first-stage SLV. However, its revelation is an indication of great ambitions of Landspace to become a world-class SLV maker.

If successful, Landspace’s 10-meter reusable rocket (Zhuque-4 ?) would place it in competition with the 10.6-meter diameter Long March-9 (LM-9) reusable SLV of the leading state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and the U.S. SpaceX Corporation’s 9-meter diameter reusable Starship SLV.

This early image indicates that Landspace may not yet have a reusable second stage for this new SLV, which is key to the Starship’s success and is planned for the LM-9, but this could still be in its long-range plans.

Nevertheless, this represents amazing progress for Landspace, and this analyst had the opportunity to interview its founder Zhang Changwu at the 2016 International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

At that time Zhang explained that Landspace’s strategy was to access CASC’s solid-fuel Long March-11 SLV technology to make its own line of solid fuel SLVs, but at the 2017 Paris Airshow CASC officials noted curtly to this analyst that they would not be subsidizing a competitor with their LM-11 technology.

This forced Landspace, also known by the name Blue Arrow Space Technology, to pivot to the development of liquid fuel SLVs, and it has moved quickly to both copy and compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX Corporation by building up to the development of reusable SLVs that stress the use of economical stainless steel and lighter-weight liquid methane fuel.

Out of five Zhuque-2 flights starting in December 2022, four have been successful, three have launched payloads into orbit and the second flight in July 2023 was the first methane powered rocket to reach orbit.

The much more ambitious Zhuque-3 may not see its first full test launch until the fourth quarter of 2025, and on June 20 Landspace conducted a successful 45-second static vertical test of the reusable first stage of the Zhuque-3, that will use nine of its TQ-12B methane powered engines.

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