Disaster! China even successfully Recovered a Clone Starship after Vertical Takeoff and Splashdown

Disaster! China even successfully Recovered a Clone Starship after Vertical Takeoff and Splashdown
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00:00: China Starship copycat’s progress
06:11: Other copycat rockets
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#greatspacex #elonmusk #spacex #nasa #starship
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SpaceX Starship SN
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Disaster! China even successfully Recovered a Clone Starship after Vertical Takeoff and Splashdown
This may look like a Starship flight—but it’s not. Just days after Flight 9, China unveiled a striking Starship lookalike, mimicking both its design and operation.
How advanced is it? Could it rival or surpass the real Starship? And what does this mean for the future of spaceflight?
Find out now on Great SpaceX.

We all know that Starship Flight 9 ended with plenty of surprises. While the launch marked another important step forward, it also revealed that SpaceX still has a considerable amount of work to do before it can fully master the Starship system. Achieving full reusability at orbital scale is no small feat, and SpaceX continues to face technical hurdles across its propulsion, thermal protection, and recovery systems.
Disaster! China even successfully Recovered a Clone Starship after Vertical Takeoff and Splashdown
But on the other side of the world, instead of tackling the same level of technical challenges from scratch, Chinese companies are rapidly introducing rockets modeled directly after Starship. These “Starship clones” are emerging in droves, with many developers openly embracing a strategy of copying what SpaceX has already built.
A clear example of this trend is the XZY-1 rocket, recently tested by Chinese startup Space Epoch. On May 29 local time (or 4:40 p.m. EST on May 28), the company carried out a vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) test at the Haiyang spaceport. The purpose of this test was to verify the basic flight and recovery capabilities of the vehicle—similar in spirit to the SN-series suborbital flights SpaceX conducted during early Starship development. However, by relying on an established design, Space Epoch has taken a shortcut and pushed forward with a more refined first demonstration.
Disaster! China even successfully Recovered a Clone Starship after Vertical Takeoff and Splashdown
The test was straightforward: the XZY-1 lifted off from a static test stand, flew to an altitude of 2.5 kilometers, and then performed a controlled descent to a splashdown in the adjacent bay. According to the company, the flight lasted 125 seconds in total. The sequence of events—including full engine ignition, throttling during ascent, engine cutoff at apogee, reignition of the center engines, and soft water landing—closely mirrored the early Starship SN flights. Based on available video footage and company statements, all these steps were carried out successfully.
This wasn’t just a simple demonstration. The entire exercise was clearly aimed at showcasing Space Epoch’s ability to replicate SpaceX’s VTVL maneuvers, specifically water-based recovery. While SpaceX has conducted a handful of Starship water landings—some successful, others less so—Space Epoch’s test was conducted at a much lower altitude and closer range. Comparing the two programs directly isn’t entirely fair: SpaceX is working with near-orbital trajectories and recovering vehicles from the Indian Ocean, while XZY-1 operated within a narrow vertical range. Still, the operational similarity between the tests illustrates just how closely Space Epoch is following in Starship’s footsteps.
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