By Eduardo Baptista and Joey Roulette

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The maiden flight of LandSpace’s next-generation Zhuque-3 ended in failure on Wednesday, dashing the Chinese firm’s hopes of becoming the third company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to successfully test a reusable rocket.

The rocket was not able to complete the crucial controlled landing following an initial launch, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“An abnormal combustion event occurred during the process, preventing a soft landing on the recovery pad,” Xinhua said. “The recovery test failed and the specific cause is still under further analysis and investigation.”

The failure of Zhuque-3’s maiden flight highlights the difficulty of developing a rocket that can be recovered and reused a

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