China flew 93 launches in 2025, a national record, up from 68 the year before. Private companies made 16 of them, and 14 succeeded, according to People’s Daily figures cited by the analysis site SpaceNexus. The National Bureau of Statistics counts 92 for the year.
Most of the growth came from commercial operators. State-owned CASC and CASIC still fly the Long March and Kuaizhou families, but startups are taking a rising share of the manifest. Several of them are building rockets meant to be flown more than once.
Boosters coming back
The clearest results arrived in mid-2026. On July 10, the commercial Long March 10B reached orbit and had its booster recovered by net. Landspace followed in August. Its Zhuque-3 had reached orbit on its first flight on December 3, 2025, but the booster was lost in the landing attempt. On the second flight the booster landed, which SpaceNexus describes as the first orbital-class booster landing by a Chinese company. The rocket is rated at about 11.8 tonnes to low-Earth orbit when expended, or 8 tonnes with the booster recovered.
Galactic Energy’s Pallas-1, a kerosene and liquid-oxygen medium-lift rocket with a reusable first stage, reached orbit on its debut on September 1, 2026, Beijing time.
Not every debut went well. Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3, a vehicle aimed at the Falcon 9’s performance class, failed shortly after liftoff on April 3, 2026. SpaceNexus notes that even SpaceX needed four tries with Falcon 1 before reaching orbit.
Who else is building
The list of reusable projects is long. iSpace is developing Hyperbola-3, a partially reusable methane-fueled rocket with a first flight listed for late 2026. CAS Space is working on Kinetica-2, Deep Blue Aerospace on Nebula-1, and Orienspace on Gravity-2. CASIC has a spaceplane concept called Tengyun with a reusable first stage.
Landspace has a place in the record books already. In 2023 its Zhuque-2 became the first rocket in the world fueled by methane to reach orbit.
Policy and demand
SpaceNexus ties the pace to deliberate government policy. State Council directives in 2014 and 2019 opened launch to private investment. Hainan, Anhui and Shandong offer land, tax breaks and launch infrastructure. The Hainan commercial launch site hosted its first launch, a Long March 12, on November 30, 2024.
Planned national broadband constellations, Qianfan (also called G60) and Guowang, would need thousands of satellites launched, which gives commercial providers a guaranteed customer.
What it could mean abroad
SpaceNexus argues that reusable vehicles could let Chinese providers cut prices further. U.S. export rules known as ITAR keep Chinese rockets from launching most Western satellites. Customers in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the site says, are increasingly sensitive to price.
The same analysis says SpaceX still holds a commanding lead in operational reusability and flight history. It gives the Artemis Accords, signed by 76 nations as of September 2026, and China’s International Lunar Research Station partnership as two competing frameworks that allies may have to choose between.
Items to watch for the rest of the year include Tianlong-3’s return to flight, a first reuse of a Zhuque-3 booster, how fast Qianfan satellites go up, and whether the 2026 launch total passes 93.
