Beijing: China's reusable carrier rocket failed to complete its maiden test, as reported by state media on Wednesday. The 'second stage' of the Zhuque-3 Y1 rocket successfully entered the designated orbit, but the recovery of its first stage did not go as planned, Xinhua News reported.

According to Anadolu Agency, the rocket, produced by Beijing-based commercial aerospace company LandSpace, is a methane-fueled launch vehicle that did not achieve the intended soft landing during its first-stage recovery test. The company revealed that 'abnormal combustion occurred during descent,' which was a critical factor in the failure.

Shanghai Daily reported that the anomaly happened during the recovery verification test, preventing the booster from landing on the designated pad. LandSpace mentioned that the cause of the abnormal combustion is currently under investigation.

The rocket was launched from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone around noon local time on Wednesday. Notably, only two US-based space companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, have successfully tested reusable rockets so far.

Anadolu Agency further quoted the daily Global Times, saying, 'Although this mission did not achieve the planned first-stage recovery objective, it successfully validated the correctness and rationality of the overall ZQ-3 carrier rocket test, launch, and flight process schemes, as well as the compatibility of interfaces across all systems.' The flight provided critical engineering data under real flight conditions, laying an important foundation for subsequent launch services and reliable, reusable first-stage recovery.