Posted: Sat, May 16, 2026, 9:26 AM ET (1326 GMT)
China's Zhuque-2 rocket returned to flight Wednesday night. The Zhuque-2E methane-liquid oxygen rocket, built by Landspace, lifted off at 11:00 pm EDT (0300 GMT Thursday) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, placing a 2,800-kilogram test payload into polar orbit. It was the first launch of the Zhuque-2E since an August 2025 failure blamed on a voltage issue affecting the second stage, triggering a self-destruct. Landspace has incorporated improvements into the Zhuque-2E that allow it to place up to 4,000 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit and 6,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit.

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