The article “Starnet surges wildly, and the most injured one is the Yuanxin Satellite” mentioned that our country currently has a number of large-scale reusable launch vehicles under development, and the development progress cannot keep up with the satellite launch plan.
Today we will talk about: Is recyclable rocket technology really difficult?
01
Is it really difficult?
As early as the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union tried to implement “recyclable” technology on space transportation vehicles. U.S. Space Shuttle: The U.S. Space Shuttle is the world’s first reusable space vehicle that travels between the ground and space. A total of 135 missions were carried out from 1981 to 2011, with a single launch cost as high as 1.5 billion US dollars. It was eventually retired after two major accidents; the Soviet “Buran” space shuttle: completed an unmanned test flight in 1988, but died with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Entering the 21st century, SpaceX took the lead in exploring another path – using vertical takeoff and landing to recover the rocket’s first-stage booster. In 2015, Falcon 9 was successfully recovered at sea for the first time; in 2017, a second-hand reusable rocket was successfully launched; as of August 18, 2025, SpaceX has completed a total of 488 first-stage booster recoveries and reused them 458 times. The record for the highest reuse of a single booster has reached 29 times. Apart from SpaceX, there is no other company or organization in the world that can successfully realize the recovery and reuse of orbital-stage rockets. United States: Apart from SpaceX, Blue Origin is the most watched competitor. Since the development of the New Glenn rocket began in 2012, the cumulative investment has exceeded US$2.5 billion. On January 16, 2025, the New Glenn rocket carried out its first launch. The second stage was successfully put into orbit, but the first stage booster failed to be recovered at sea. The second launch mission has been delayed again and again, and is currently expected to be carried out in September 2025. China: Many rocket companies are actively deploying recyclable launch vehicle technology. In addition to the national team, more than 20 private rocket companies in my country have made multiple technological breakthroughs in this field, and plan to achieve the first flights of multiple rockets this year. Russia: In recent years, recyclable solutions such as “Angara-A5V” and “Amur-LNG” have been proposed. Among them, “Angara-A5V” is mainly an upgraded version of the existing disposable rocket, focusing on improving transportation capacity; while “Amur-LNG” is aimed at true reusability. It has now entered the engine prototype development and control system design and analysis stages, but the specific first flight time has not yet been announced. Europe: Ariane Group is developing the “Prometheus” liquid oxygen methane engine and the “Semis” vertical take-off and landing demonstrator, but it is still in the ground and suborbital testing stages, and there is no clear model plan. The next-generation Ariane rocket is not expected to be reusable until around 2030. Japan: It has tried the RVT small recovery rocket and introduced a partially reusable concept in the H-3 rocket. This year Honda Technical Research Institute completed a small rocket vertical takeoff and landing test. It is still in the basic research stage and aims to have suborbital launch capabilities in 2029. South Korea: Plans to master reusable technology by 2035 and is adjusting its disposable rocket development project that originally cost about US$1.53 billion. India: Develop the next-generation launch vehicle NGLV. The payload is expected to be three times that of LVM3. The project has received an allocation of US$994 million and plans to complete three key technology verification test flights in the next eight years, including verification of recovery capabilities. It can be seen that recyclable rocket technology is an extremely complex system engineering. Its difficulty is not only reflected in key technological breakthroughs such as power systems, but also involves the design and integration of the entire technical system. At the same time, this technology is highly dependent on a country or company’s industrial base, supply chain integration capabilities, and sustainable financial support. Therefore, although financial investment is very important, recyclable rocket technology cannot be easily solved by just “throwing money”. It tests system innovation capabilities and long-term technology accumulation, and is one of the ultimate manifestations of the comprehensive strength of the aerospace industry system.
02
What is the difficulty?
Recyclable rocket technology seems simple – “fly up and come down again”, but in fact it is extremely difficult. From core power to overall carrying efficiency, to flight control, every aspect is full of challenges. 1. Engine capability The engine is the “heart” of the recyclable rocket, which directly determines whether the rocket can take off safely and return stably. Take SpaceX’s Falcon 9 as an example. Its Merlin engine has a thrust-to-weight ratio of 198:1, which is at the leading level among similar liquid rocket engines. More importantly, it has variable thrust adjustment, deep throttling and multiple ignition capabilities. During a complete launch and recovery process, the first-stage booster engine needs to be ignited three times and shut down three times. During the entire process, the booster will also complete two large-angle flips to ensure the stability of the reentry attitude and final landing. This series of actions places extremely high requirements on the reliability of the engine. It must run stably at full power, start and stop quickly in extreme environments, and ensure accurate thrust output. What’s even more difficult is that these operations often occur in extreme environments of high temperature, high vibration, and high-speed flow fields. Any ignition failure or thrust fluctuation may cause the rocket to crash. This kind of test on the engine is generally called “hell-level difficulty” in the industry. 2. Carrying efficiency The key to a recyclable rocket is not only to “recycle it”, but also to maintain sufficient carrying capacity while recycling it to ensure economic value. This capability is often measured by a “carrying factor.” Taking Falcon 9 as an example, it has a take-off mass of 549 tons, a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 22.8 tons, and a carrying coefficient of 4.15%. This means that it can still maintain high energy efficiency while retaining the required fuel and structural redundancy. At present, the carrying coefficient of most domestic disposable rockets is generally less than 3%. In addition, recyclable rockets need to carry additional return fuel, add landing mechanisms, strengthen thermal protection, etc., which all lead to an increase in “dead weight”. If systematic breakthroughs cannot be achieved in structural weight reduction, power improvement, ballistic planning, etc., even if recycling is achieved, commercial competitiveness may be lost due to excessive capacity loss. In addition to the two core problems of engine and carrying efficiency, recyclable rockets also face many challenges such as guidance control, parallel connection of multiple machines, structural design and materials, and post-recycling inspection and maintenance.
03
Additional domestic challenges
In addition to the complexity of the technology itself, the development of China’s recyclable rockets also faces some “ideological barriers”, which are also important factors affecting the success of recyclable rockets. 1. Path dependence. In the past few decades, the design logic of Chinese rockets has always been to put success rate first. Under this idea, rockets often adopt redundant designs, such as double or even triple backup of key systems, to ensure that the mission can successfully complete the launch even if a single component fails. This robust design worked well in the era of disposable rockets, but it creates an additional burden for reusable rockets. Excessive redundancy means higher weight and lower energy utilization efficiency, which directly affects the feasibility of recycling and reuse. To achieve recyclability, the design team must break the long-term accumulated path dependence and fundamentally change their thinking. 2. Extreme weight reduction Another core concept of recyclable rockets is extreme weight reduction. In order to ensure that the rocket can return safely after completing its launch mission, it must reduce its weight as much as possible while ensuring strength and reliability. This not only requires structural design, material selection, and manufacturing processes to reach a higher level, but also requires the entire system to be fully optimized in terms of power distribution, fuel reserves, and electronic equipment layout. Extreme weight reduction is contrary to the conservative strategy of traditional aerospace and requires the design team to find a new balance between safety and efficiency. This change in philosophy is often more difficult than technological breakthroughs, and is also one of the additional challenges faced by domestic rocket companies.
04
future outlook
Although recyclable rocket technology is extremely difficult, domestic rocket companies are making every effort to promote related research and development work. In 2025, two to three recyclable rockets will be launched into orbit, such as Blue Arrow Aerospace’s Zhuque-3, Tianbing Technology’s Tianlong-3, and China Aerospace Science and Technology’s Lijian-2. These rockets are currently undergoing various system tests and verifications before their first flights. If domestically produced recyclable rockets can be put into orbit and recovered before the starship is fully mature, it will narrow the gap with the international leading level in terms of technology and experience. On the contrary, the gap may increase exponentially, and we will be at a strategic disadvantage for a long time to come. Recyclable rockets are not “impossible”; they represent the highest level of aerospace technology and system integration capabilities. Whoever can master this technology is likely to dominate the next generation of space transportation and space infrastructure.
