Ten years ago, Dai Zheng made a career-defining gamble: he left his secure, prestigious engineering post in China’s state space programme to join an unproven private start-up. On August 19, that risk paid off when a rocket booster returned from orbit and landed upright for the first time in Chinese commercial space history.
For Dai, now chief commander of the Zhuque-3 missions at LandSpace, the successful touchdown marked both a major personal milestone and a critical leap forward in China’s drive to develop reusable launch vehicles.
The landing followed an intense eight-month recovery effort after a crash during a failed attempt in December. More broadly, it vindicated Dai’s decade-long belief that reusability – recycling parts of a rocket so it can fly again – is essential to cutting launch costs and supporting Beijing’s ambitions for massive satellite constellations.
Dai, 42, joined LandSpace in 2016 at the invitation of founder Zhang Changwu. He stepped down from his senior post in rocket research and development at the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) to serve as deputy general manager at the then one-year-old start-up.
The move meant turning his back on a secure path at CALT, where he had worked since 2009 after earning a master’s degree in engineering mechanics from Tsinghua University. As one of the lead architects of the Long March 5, China’s first heavy-lift rocket, Dai had been on a fast-rising trajectory.
Leaving the state system was painful. Dai recalled crying the night before resigning as he laid his awards across his bed. “I entered the state aerospace sector straight after graduation and never thought I would leave,” Dai told state broadcaster CCTV in an interview late last year.