November 26, 2025
Thrust, Trust, and Comment Busts
China Has Three Reusable Rockets Ready for Their Debut Flights
China’s reusable rockets spark space-race hype and price-war vibes
TLDR: China is prepping three reusable rockets, potentially making it the first non‑U.S. nation to land and reuse a booster. Commenters split between cheering a new U.S.–China space race and predicting a price war that dents SpaceX, while others mock techy buzzwords and grumble about moderation drama.
China is rolling three reusable rockets to the pad, and the comments lit up like a launch tower. Fans cheered the idea that China could be the first country outside the U.S. to land and reuse a rocket booster, with the Long March 12A and LandSpace’s tall Zhuque-3 grabbing headlines. Translation for non-rocket nerds: these rockets aim to touch down softly and fly again, which can slash costs and speed up space access.
The loudest chorus? “Bring back the space race.” One user openly roots for U.S. vs China competition, arguing it’ll force everyone to build better, cheaper rockets. Then came the economics brawl: another commenter said more reusable rockets will push prices down and eat into SpaceX’s near‑monopoly—then got downvoted, sparking a meta fight over why plain economics gets punished online. Meanwhile, the phrase “space stops being rare air — and becomes infrastructure” got roasted as “AI slop,” turning into a mini‑meme dunking on tech-speak. Over on Hacker News, moderation drama flared when a question about Europe and China being priced out of orbit access vanished mid‑typing, feeding conspiracies and eye‑rolls alike.
Between price‑war predictions, rivalry dreams, and copy‑editing snark, the community’s verdict is clear: if China sticks the landing, the real blastoff might be in the comments.
Key Points
- •Three Chinese enterprises are nearing debut flights of partially reusable rockets, targeted before year-end; one will be China’s first and the first outside the United States.
- •SAST’s Long March 12A is a methalox, two-stage rocket (3.8 m wide) with seven Longyun engines on the first stage and a vacuum-optimized YF-209 on the second, designed to carry up to 12,000 kg.
- •Long March 12A first-stage recovery will use grid fins, a landing burn, and four landing legs.
- •Development milestones include a January high-altitude hop test (software glitches during splashdown), an August second-stage static fire in Haiyang, and November delivery of the transporter-erector.
- •LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 (66 m tall, 4.5 m wide), also methalox-fueled, is on its Jiuquan launch pad following October delivery and is described as having more engines than Long March 12A.