ZQ-3 Successful Land-Based Booster Recovery: Boosting Commercial Spaceflight & Unlocking New Opportunities for Space Power Testing

At 07:35 on August 19, 2026, Blue Arrow Aerospace’s ZQ-3 Y2 launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Site. Its first-stage booster landed as scheduled at the ZQ-3 landing pad in Minqin County, Gansu Province. The second stage successfully injected the Honghu-03 satellite into its predefined orbit. This marks China’s first-ever land-based recovery of a launch vehicle first-stage booster, making ZQ-3 the country’s first orbitalcapable rocket with successful land recovery.

Reusable rocket technology demands more than successful launch. The first-stage booster accounts for roughly 70 % of total rocket cost, and recovery capability is critical to the commercial space industry’s cost-effective business model. Precision return involves sophisticated high-altitude attitude adjustment, re-entry deceleration via engine reignition, landing leg deployment and shock absorption. Even minor deviations can compromise mission success. Blue Arrow Aerospace implemented multiple targeted optimizations for key recovery-phase operations in this mission.

Beyond cutting launch costs, the milestone ushers Chinese commercial space into an era of high-frequency, low-cost launches. Lower launch barriers will accelerate satellite constellation deployment and space infrastructure build-out. Growing satellite production drives booming demand for space power systems including solar cells and solar arrays.

Every satellite and solar array must undergo rigorous ground qualification testing before space launch, creating surging requirements for reliable aerospace power-source inspection. The ZQ-3 is powered by nine TQ-12A liquid-oxygen methane engines with throttling ranging from 40 % to 110 % to support vertical landing and reusability. Its on-board power systems endure severe launch shocks and extreme thermal-mechanical loads during atmospheric re-entry. Rigorous precision testing covering solar-array cell screening, energy-storage battery charge-discharge cycling and power-controller validation is indispensable.

Based in Wuhan and founded in 2015, Aijiang Technology is a national high-tech enterprise with nearly a decade of progress in domestic commercial-space supply-chain localization. Its self-developed extra-large-format AM0 transient solar simulator, China’s dedicated test platform for oversized solar arrays, delivers A-grade aerospace-standard performance: spectral range 350-1800 nm, irradiance non-uniformity below 2 %, and irradiance instability under 1 %. The system has supported major programs including space-station solar panels and deep-space exploration satellites.

Equipped with Xinghan AI 2.0 intelligent inspection software, the solution achieves 98.7 % defect-recognition accuracy, over 12-fold improvement in component-level testing throughput, and 92 % full-stack domestic component adoption. Aijiang’s aerospace-grade test portfolio covers full-chain workflows: individual aerospace cells, energy-storage battery modules, power controllers and satellite-level power subsystems. It occupies a vital position within the closed-loop commercial-space workflow: manufacturing, launch, recovery, inspection and re-use. Recovered boosters require comprehensive evaluation before re-flight, while newly-built satellite solar panels and power units need full pre-launch inspection. Advanced testing capacity directly determines launch cadence and reusable-rocket operational efficiency.

ZQ-3’s land-recovery achievement stands as a landmark for China’s commercial space sector. Every industry milestone relies on coordinated support across the complete industrial chain. Aijiang Technology will keep leveraging self-reliant intelligent testing technologies to guarantee reliable satellite launch, precise measurement and stable on-orbit performance, empowering commercial space to advance from manufacturing feasibility toward high-quality production, accurate testing and high-rate reusability.