LandSpace

They're only going to get maybe one or two very limited selection of samples, but they will be the first and they will tell us all sorts of amazing things while Perseverance's samples just sit on the surface of Mars waiting for the US to figure out what it's doing.

Also in China, Landspace, they showed off their 220-ton full-flow stage combustion thrust methalox engine.

That sounds familiar.

They performed a long-duration burn.

And we have no idea when we might actually see that fly.

So now, the next one up is Landspace, and they too started out with an ace, all-solid launch vehicle derived from a missile.

This was the Juche 1, and again, it has three solid stages.

Yes, they decided not to have a fourth stage this time.

I guess that made getting into the final orbit a bit of a navigation challenge.

However, they never got that far, because in 2018, they became the first Chinese company to attempt an orbital launch, but they had attitude control issues with the third stage, and the payload never reached orbit.

And after that, Landspace decided that they had enough of messing around with these silly repurposed motors from missiles, and they began developing their own rocket, the Juche 2.

So the Juche 2 was the first rocket to reach orbit fueled by methane, right, in the world, not just in China.

Because of course, the first one we had was a Long March 10, which was caught by some wires and hooks and all sorts of cool stuff.

Now, this was the second attempt by Landspace to perform this with their Juche 3.

So Juche 3 is like a...

Four and a half meter stainless steel, about 570 tons, 66 meters tall, has nine engines on the first stage.

That was a pretty spectacular failure.

Booster exploding, a whole bunch of wreckage landing on the ground.

And I'm really happy to see that Landspace shared that.

Now, after landing, there was apparently a bit of a fire.

And then just a month later or so, we had another booster.

a successful landing of a reusable rocket, this time by a private Chinese startup called Landspace.

And that one landed on landing legs like SpaceX's Falcon 9.

So, you know, a lot of listeners are familiar with the fact that SpaceX has been doing this sort of reusable launch for more than a decade.

resting among harvested corn stalks.

Now the report from Ars Technica details the time, location and direction of the falling debris, which allowed experts to connect it to a rocket launch the previous day by the Chinese firm Landspace.

Instead of the falling debris landing in the ocean, Ars Technica says the debris landed in the Midwest and it could indicate a failed or misdirected de-orbit maneuver.

No word was given on whether Landspace will try to get the piece of the rocket back.

I don't think it can be repaired.

29-year-old man has been charged.