China has gained pace in the space race by recovering rockets – but can it relaunch one?

scmp.com Sep 18, 2026

China has gained pace in the space race by recovering rockets – but can it relaunch one?

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · Sep 18, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

China’s private aerospace firm LandSpace successfully recovered the first stage of its Zhuque‑3 rocket using deployable landing legs in Gansu, marking the country’s inaugural ground‑based controlled booster recovery. The achievement follows a series of U.S. milestones, with SpaceX claiming over 600 reusable launches. While China has yet to reuse a booster, the Zhuque‑3 landing demonstrates progress toward cost‑effective reusability and signals the nation’s intent to close the gap with U.S. leaders in commercial spaceflight. The event underscores China’s growing capabilities and its strategic push to become a major player in the global space economy.

💡 Why It Matters

· The landing shows China’s tangible steps toward reusable launch technology, a key driver of lower launch costs and increased launch cadence.
· It signals a narrowing performance gap with U.S.
· competitors, potentially reshaping the competitive dynamics of the commercial space sector.

Capsules Space

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Icarus Robotics tests Joy in Canada ahead of ISS flight

Icarus Robotics, a New York‑based startup, completed four parabolic‑flight tests of its free‑flying robot Joy in Canada, accumulating 22 minutes of microgravity operation. The trials validated Joy’s flight controller, sensor suite and dexterous manipulators, and allowed the company to rehearse crew coordination, scheduling and safety protocols ahead of a planned 2027 demonstration aboard the International Space Station. Icarus partnered with former astronaut Chris Hadfield because U.S. providers of parabolic flights are currently unavailable, highlighting a gap in domestic microgravity testing capacity. The company will hand Joy to NASA in January for transport to the ISS, positioning the robot as a prototype for a future “robotic workforce” that could service orbital data centers and assemble lunar infrastructure.

💡 The tests expose a critical shortfall in U.S. microgravity test infrastructure, forcing innovators to seek foreign facilities and potentially slowing the rollout of autonomous space‑service robots.

spacenews.com · Sep 17

Inside Europe’s push for space autonomy with Josef Aschbacher

At the World Space Business Week conference in Paris, SpaceNews host Mike Gruss interviewed Josef Aschbacher, director‑general of the European Space Agency. Aschbacher outlined Europe’s push for greater sovereignty in space and other domains, highlighting the agency’s current strengths, gaps, and strategic priorities. He discussed new European investments aimed at boosting independence, fostering innovation, and maintaining competitiveness in the global space sector. The conversation underscored ESA’s role in shaping policy and technology for the continent’s future space ambitions.

💡 Europe’s drive for space autonomy signals a strategic shift that could reshape international collaboration and competition, positioning the continent as a more self‑sufficient player in a rapidly evolving industry.

space.com · Sep 17

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket-landing team gets 1st-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize

The inaugural Neil Armstrong Space Prize was awarded to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing team at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., on September 15. The prize, created by Purdue University, honors the engineers who made reusable first‑stage landings a reality, a breakthrough that has lowered launch costs and expanded spaceflight capabilities. Five key team members—Blackmore, Diez, Edwards, Kuwata, and Velázquez—were recognized for their role in achieving the first vertical touchdown in 2015 and subsequent widespread reuse of the booster.

💡 The award underscores how mastering reusable rocket landings reshaped the economics of space travel, setting a new industry standard that competitors now follow.

space.com · Sep 16

Space weather caused a 16-minute train delay in 1848: ‘Our research has…

A team led by Professor Jim Wild re‑examined a 19th‑century train delay that had been cited as the first solar‑storm disruption of technology. By cross‑checking railway timetables, newspapers, and geomagnetic records, they found the Exeter train incident actually occurred on 18 October 1848, not 1841, and that the earliest recorded electrical disturbance was a 1847 Midland Railway event. The study underscores how early electrical infrastructure was vulnerable to space weather and demonstrates the value of archival research in reconstructing historic geomagnetic storms.

💡 The corrected chronology shows that space‑weather impacts on critical systems date back to the 1840s, revealing a long‑standing hazard that modern power grids and satellites still face.

space.com · Sep 16

The universe’s most extreme dead stars can form from vampire white dwarfs…

A recent study by ETH Zurich researchers has mapped the precise conditions under which a white dwarf can collapse into a neutron star through accretion‑induced collapse (AIC). The process requires a white dwarf composed of oxygen, neon, and magnesium, which are denser and more massive than typical carbon‑oxygen white dwarfs. The star must accrete material from a companion at a rate that brings it close to the Chandrasekhar limit without exceeding it, preventing a Type Ia supernova. AIC events are expected to be faint, rapid, and eject little matter, distinguishing them from ordinary supernovae.

💡 The discovery clarifies a long‑standing gap in stellar evolution theory, showing that a subset of white dwarfs can become neutron stars without a massive progenitor. This insight refines models of compact‑object populations and informs searches for faint, rapid transients in the cosmos.

space.com · Sep 16

Russia launching 3 tons of cargo to the space station today: Watch…

Russia will launch the Progress 96 cargo spacecraft on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur at 9:33 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT) to deliver approximately 3 tons of food, propellant, and supplies to the International Space Station. The freighter is expected to dock two days later and remain attached for about five months before returning as debris over the Pacific. Progress 94 had recently departed the ISS to make room. The ISS crew includes NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos astronauts.

💡 The launch sustains the ISS’s continuous resupply chain, ensuring crew survival and research continuity in orbit.