China achieved a significant feat by recovering the first stage of an orbital-capable rocket during the inaugural flight of the Long March 10B on July 10. This operation positions the country as the second global nation to recover an orbital-class booster and the first to capture it using an ocean net, rather than relying on landing legs.
This achievement represents a strategic leap for the Chinese space program, as the ability to reuse rockets contributes to reducing operational costs and enabling an increase in launch frequency. Although the United States maintains leadership in the sector regarding orbital missions and lunar exploration projects, China has shown remarkable growth in this area in recent years.
The launch took place from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Center, located on Hainan Island in the south of the country. Approximately six minutes after the separation between the first and second stages, the booster began a controlled and guided descent. Some engines were reignited to assist the return, culminating in capture by the recovery vessel Linghangzhe.
Hooks attached to the fuselage engaged with cables stretched across the deck, while a hydraulic damping system absorbed the remaining energy. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state entity responsible for the project, stated that this was the world's first retrieval of a transport rocket via a net system.
According to the manufacturer, this method eliminates the need for the landing legs used by SpaceX and Blue Origin, resulting in reduced vehicle weight and an expanded margin of error during capture. However, engineers involved in the program point out that these advantages still require validation on a larger scale, given that there has only been one successful recovery so far.
The Long March 10B, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of CASC, is 63 meters high, 5 meters in diameter, and weighs approximately 760 tons at launch. Its first stage is powered by seven YF-100K engines that use kerosene and liquid oxygen, while the second stage operates with methane and liquid oxygen. In its reusable configuration, the rocket has the capacity to carry up to 16 tons to low Earth orbit.
CASC expressed its intention to reuse the recovered stage within the current year, a crucial step to convert technological demonstration into practical economy, as a single recovery does not establish a consolidated reuse program. Furthermore, China has significant space ambitions, including the development of large satellite constellations and crewed missions to the Moon. The Long March 10B is the cargo version of the Long March 10 family, which is under development, and its full version is expected to carry astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030. In contrast, the United States aims for a crewed landing in 2028, as planned in the Artemis program.
China succeeded in testing an experimental rocket recovery system last Friday (10). The Long March 10B rocket was launched from the commercial space launch center located in Hainan, in the south of the country, at 1:15 AM Brasília time.
About six minutes after the propellant separated from the upper stage, the first stage returned vertically and was successfully recovered on a maritime platform, according to state broadcaster CCTV. With this achievement, the Chinese have reached a capability that is already the domain of American companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin: the ability to return the rocket to its starting point.
Beijing's purpose is to destabilize US supremacy in the reusable rocket segment. However, the method employed by China differs from that used by Americans. Unlike autonomously landing on solid ground with extendable legs or on a drone ship, the Long March 10B uses landing hooks that capture a net attached to a maritime platform.
This test represents the first successful recovery of an orbital-class propellant by China, consolidating nearly a decade of research and development in reuse technologies. Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the event as a 'historic day for China's space program.' This technical advance preserves the most valuable part of the rocket—the engine-containing propellant—which results in a drastic reduction in orbital operational costs.
For comparison, SpaceX launches the Falcon 9 approximately 150 times annually, reusing its propellants dozens of times. The Long March 10B, capable of carrying a minimum of 16 metric tons of payload to low Earth orbit, was designed for the commercial market by the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the country's main state rocket agency. This reuse technology is expected to decrease expenses for launching Chinese commercial satellite constellations.
China's goals are even broader: the Long March 10 line is being planned to conduct crewed missions to the Moon before 2030. In this context, the experimental model will serve to collect vital data and validate the necessary technologies for the lunar program. CCTV also reported that the country intends to reuse this same propulsion stage in another launch by the end of 2026.
