On Aug 19, 2026, the ZQ‑3 Y2 carrier rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone. Its first‑stage booster completed land‑based recovery as planned, marking the full success of the flight test mission. The second‑stage sent the Honghu‑03 satellite into planned orbit.
This mission achieved China’s first controlled land recovery of a reusable carrier rocket’s first‑stage booster with deployable landing legs. It represents a major breakthrough in China’s reusable rocket technology and pushes the reusable rocket technology for the domestic commercial aerospace sector into the engineering verification stage.
