A spectacular explosion shows China is close to obtaining reusable rockets

The Long March 12A comes from one of China’s established rocket developers, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), part of the country’s state-owned aerospace enterprise. The Long March 12A has comparable performance to LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 and will also target a landing of its booster stage downrange on its first flight.

A handful of other rocket developers also claim to be weeks or months away from launching their first reusable boosters. One of them, Space…