As private and state-backed Chinese aerospace firms raced to catch up with SpaceX's reusable rocket breakthroughs, November 2018 saw significant testing milestones in China's push toward landing and reflying rocket boosters. The effort reflected Beijing's determination to compete in the increasingly commercial and strategically vital space launch market.
By 2018, SpaceX had spent years proving that rockets could land themselves and fly again, slashing launch costs and upending an industry that had assumed expendable rockets were simply the cost of doing business in space. China's aerospace establishment, both state-run and an emerging crop of private companies encouraged by loosened government policy, watched closely and began racing to replicate the feat.
Companies like LandSpace and iSpace, along with state giant CASC, pursued various reusability schemes throughout this period, testing grid fins, propulsive landing techniques, and new engine designs. Government support was substantial, viewing space launch capability as both a commercial opportunity and a matter of national prestige and security.
The broader push paid off years later, with Chinese firms achieving vertical takeoff and landing tests and moving toward operational reusable vehicles, narrowing a technological gap that once seemed insurmountable and adding a new competitive dimension to the global space launch industry dominated for years by American firms.