China Just Copied the SpaceX Falcon 9. Should SpaceX Investors Worry?

The second time was the charm for China -- almost.

On Wednesday last week, Aug. 19, China's LandSpace launched a ZhuQue-3 rocket on its second attempt to make the rocket "reusable." The ZhuQue-3 launched successfully, reached orbital velocity, and deposited a customer's satellite into orbit with its second stage. The rocket's first stage then initiated a reentry burn, returned to Earth, and landed -- just like a SpaceX Falcon 9.

Well, almost like a SpaceX Falcon 9.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Close, but no cigar

Upon landing, it appears ZhuQue-3 still had a lot of fuel in the tank, which proceeded to burn off after landing, igniting several fires on the landing pad. The heat from these fires melted one of the rocket's landing legs, causing ZhuQue-3 to topple over several hours after landing. LandSpace, which had planned to build a new ZhuQue-3 for Flight 3, then refurbish and reuse this one on its fourth flight, may now need to rethink that plan.

It's still quite an accomplishment for LandSpace, which has come very close to duplicating the success that is Space Exploration Technologies' (NASDAQ: SPCX) Falcon 9 reusable rocket.

LandSpace isn't done imitating SpaceX. Plans (now perhaps set back a bit by the toppling) envision lengthening ZhuQue-3 to 76.6 meters tall, tweaking the design to use more powerful TQ-12B and TQ-15B engines, adding more fuel, and thus upgrading the entire rocket to the point where it can carry payloads of up to 18.3 metric tons to low Earth orbit.

Should SpaceX investors be nervous?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Not necessarily, not immediately, no.

Consider: Even in the matter of payload, SpaceX retains a sizable advantage over LandSpace. After multiple upgrades over the years, its Falcon 9 now carries a maximum payload to LEO of 22.8 kilograms. That's 25% better than ZhuQue will have even after it completes its upgrade and before LandSpace works out all the kinks of landing and reuse.

Granted, a 25% advantage may not seem quite so impressive given that SpaceX has been launching and landing reusable rockets since 2015 and has more than a decade's head start on LandSpace. Granted, too, LandSpace isn't the only space company that has taken a page from SpaceX's reusability notebook and used it to build reusable rockets of their own.

Right here in America, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully launched and landed a rocket at sea (an arguably even tougher task than landing on land) on its second try last year. Sir Peter Beck at Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) is also working on a reusable spacecraft, the Neutron medium-lift rocket. That one could begin launching in early 2027 -- or even later this year.

At an estimated 13 tons of payload to LEO, Neutron then will be roughly the same size as China's ZhuQue-3 is now.

SpaceX remains best in class

When you do the math, though, these numbers still confirm that SpaceX and its Falcon 9 remain best-in-class in space, offering the longest record of reliability, the biggest payloads, and the best price per kilogram to orbit. And here's the real reveal that shows how far ahead of the competition SpaceX is:

As everyone else on Earth races to catch up to Falcon 9, SpaceX just signaled that Falcon 9 is already obsolete technology and will be discontinued in favor of Starship.

Once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon

-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2026

On July 24, SpaceX conducted its most successful Starship test flight yet, using V3 versions of both its Super Heavy booster and Ship second stage to put 20 V3 Starlink satellites in orbit. Ship then conducted a successful soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, and Super Heavy a (somewhat less) successful landing in the Gulf. With the kinks now mostly worked out on both elements of the craft, SpaceX plans to attempt its first-ever tower-catch landing of the Ship on its 14th test flight next month, setting the stage for full reusability of Starship.

Already, SpaceX is looking forward to the day when Starship is "flying reliably several times per week," carrying more than 100 metric tons to orbit with each flight. Once this goal is reached, Elon Musk plans to begin shutting down Falcon 9 production and switching all SpaceX work to Starship.

By the time LandSpace, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab finally catch up to SpaceX in the Falcon 9 race, SpaceX will already have moved on to win the next race -- with Starship.

Rich Smith has positions in Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.