China’s Dahang Yueqian says it has cleared a key hurdle for Yueqian-1, a reusable methane-fueled rocket that aims to bring its first stage back to the launch tower. The test focused on the cooling system for the liquid methane feed line, a small-sounding detail that can make or break a reusable launcher when the hardware gets hot, stressed, and a little too close to physics.
The company says this was the first specialized test of this kind in China for reusable rockets. Engineers simulated launch-like conditions and checked fuel-system elements, including tank surrogates, high-pressure lines, and parts of the engine system. The reported pressure, flow, and temperature results were said to match computer models closely, which is exactly what you want before a rocket starts turning expensive smoke into data.
What Yueqian-1 is trying to be
Yueqian-1 burns liquid oxygen and methane, stands about 70 meters tall, measures 4.2 meters across, and is designed to produce 720 tons of thrust. That puts it in the same broad class as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, while its methalox propellant choice and tower-catching landing concept borrow more from the Starship playbook.
The mix is interesting because it reflects where reusable launchers are heading: not just recovering hardware, but making the recovery system itself part of the launch architecture. In practice, that usually means more ground infrastructure, more complexity, and more ways to get it wrong before it gets cheaper.
Falcon 9 practicality, Starship ambition
SpaceX proved that landing a first stage can be operationally useful rather than just a stunt. Starship goes further, betting on methane, large-scale reuse, and tower-based recovery as the basis for a much bigger system. Yueqian-1 appears to be trying to sit between those two ideas: familiar enough to be credible, ambitious enough to matter.
- Propellant: liquid oxygen and methane
- Height: about 70 meters
- Diameter: 4.2 meters
- Start thrust: 720 tons
- Recovery plan: first stage returns to the launch tower
The real test is still ahead
The company has not disclosed when the first launch will happen, which is usually the polite way of saying ”do not hold your breath.” But the successful subsystem test suggests Yueqian-1 is moving from presentation-slide territory toward hardware that can actually be evaluated under realistic conditions. The next question is whether the rest of the rocket can keep pace with the ambition of its landing system.