Professor Hui Su, Chair Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Director of the Institute for Space Science and Technology at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), "Global STEM Scholar", and Founder & Chairwoman of Stellerus Tech, together with Professor Zhai Chengxing, Associate Director of the Institute for Space Science and Technology at HKUST, recently authored an expert perspective piece on the successful land recovery of the Zhuque-3 rocket, which was published in Wen Wei Po.

In the summer of 2026, China's aerospace sector ushered in a series of major breakthroughs. Following the Changzheng-10B rocket's completion of the world's first sea-based net catch recovery of a rocket stage in July, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 Y2 carrier rocket recently successfully achieved first-stage land recovery using landing legs after completing its satellite launch mission, setting China's first land recovery record for an orbit-class carrier rocket. Within just over a month, two distinct technological pathways achieved successive breakthroughs, demonstrating that China's launch vehicle technology is accelerating toward maturity and entering a "reusable rocket era," providing critical support for the large-scale construction of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations and the development of commercial aerospace. As an international financial center and international innovation and technology hub, Hong Kong is embracing unprecedented strategic opportunities and is fully equipped to further expand its role in the aerospace industrial chain, developing into a key platform connecting scientific research, capital, and markets.

These two recovery missions represent two different technical pathways and scenario adaptations. Land recovery for Zhuque-3 pursues "precision landing and stable standing." The first stage of this liquid oxygen-methane rocket is equipped with nine thrust-variable engines, which, like SpaceX's Falcon 9, performs a smooth vertical landing via engine reignition and grid fin attitude control during descent. Its core technology lies in high-precision navigation, guidance, and control (NGC) systems, requiring the rocket to precisely "apply the brakes" on land and deploy landing legs for stable support. Since the first stage accounts for approximately 70% of the total rocket cost, its successful recovery lays the foundation for a high-frequency, low-cost launch model in the future, with single-launch costs expected to drop significantly.

"Standing Stable" on Land and "Catching Firmly" at Sea

Meanwhile, the sea-based net catch recovery of the Changzheng-10B reflects the Chinese wisdom of "rocket-ground coordination." The rocket requires no landing legs; instead, it flies directly into a large flexible net deployed by the recovery vessel Linghangzhe at sea. This approach offers key advantages: First, it simplifies the rocket body, saving weight and increasing payload capacity by omitting landing legs; second, it provides high fault tolerance, as the net capture window is larger than a "leg landing," relaxing landing precision requirements and making it particularly suited for offshore recovery scenarios. Through precise coordination between the rocket's cable mechanism and the vessel's arresting net, a "gentle embrace" is achieved.

If land recovery represents the pinnacle of "precision touchdown," sea-based net catch recovery is an innovation in "adaptive capture." The two complement each other, showing that China's rocket recovery system has reached world-leading levels, providing eco-friendly and low-cost transportation support that is "able to ascend and return" for the dense launching of large LEO satellite constellations.

Connecting International Markets with Aerospace Industry Development

As rocket recovery technology gradually matures, the threshold for developing the space economy will be significantly lowered.

Constellation building involves massive capital investments with long payback cycles, requiring continuous and stable financial backing. As a "super connector" and international financial center, Hong Kong boasts a mature international financing, insurance, and legal service system capable of providing commercial aerospace enterprises with specialized services such as project financing and launch insurance. Companies headquartered and operating in Hong Kong, such as AsiaSat and APT Satellite, have fully proven Hong Kong's supply chain radiation capabilities in the aerospace industry.

Furthermore, Hong Kong possesses top-tier scientific research and talent advantages. Universities in Hong Kong have long participated in national lunar exploration and Mars exploration missions, accumulating extensive experience in deep space exploration, environmental monitoring, precision instrumentation, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. With Hong Kong payload specialists participating in national space missions and the successful installation of HKUST's "MUSICO" payload, a local aerospace talent pipeline is rapidly taking shape. Hong Kong can focus on high value-added sectors such as high-precision payloads, space computing chips, photovoltaic materials, satellite communication technology, aerospace AI applications, and satellite data analytics, creating a strong synergy with Mainland China's large-scale manufacturing.

At the same time, Hong Kong serves as an ideal "testing ground" for satellite applications. Hong Kong has built its first LEO broadband satellite demonstration station and successfully completed vehicle-mounted Comms-On-The-Move (COTM) testing, reaching real-world speeds close to 200 Mbps (actual rates may vary depending on weather, distance, terminal type, and other factors). Its highly urbanized environment and dense IoT demand provide abundant real-world validation scenarios for downstream satellite applications such as smart cities, autonomous driving, and the low-altitude economy. Cooperation between Mainland enterprises like GalaxySpace and HKT highlights precisely this gateway effect.

Finally, Hong Kong can further develop professional services related to the space economy. As industry voices suggest, Hong Kong does not need to duplicate manufacturing efforts for rockets and satellites; instead, it should act as a "Space Solution Architect." By leveraging its international strengths, Hong Kong can establish standards in areas such as satellite data commercialization, space intellectual property protection, and international space arbitration, becoming an Asia-Pacific center for space economy professional services.

Breakthroughs in rocket recovery technology are opening a new chapter for the global space economy. Leveraging the unique advantages of "One Country, Two Systems," Hong Kong is fully capable of playing the role of a "super-enabler" in this transformation—nourishing industrial growth with finance as living water, guiding technological innovation with scientific wisdom, accelerating achievements transformation with application scenarios, and expanding international cooperation networks with professional services—thereby engraving its own coordinates in the vast expanse of space.