The nation successfully tested an experimental rocket retrieval system using a net attached to a sea platform, state media reported, in the hope of breaking US dominance in reusable rockets.
The Long March 10B rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch site in southern China yesterday and, about six minutes after separation of its booster and upper stage, the booster returned vertically and was recovered on an offshore platform, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
The test marks China’s first successful retrieval of an orbital-class rocket, bringing the country closer to developing reusable rockets.
The Long March 10B has been compared to the Falcon 9, SpaceX’s widely used medium-lift rocket.
It was developed for commercial aerospace by the country’s main state rocket developer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, and is capable of carrying a payload of at least 16 tonnes to low-Earth orbit.
But unlike the Falcon 9, the Long March 10B does not autonomously land on deployable legs on a ground pad or drone ship, using “landing hooks” instead to catch the net attached to a sea platform.
By contrast, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 rocket from an orbital flight for the first time in December 2015, followed by Blue Origin’s New Glenn in November 2025.
By now, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly three times a week, with its booster reused dozens of times if necessary.
The engine-packed booster is generally viewed as the most valuable part of a rocket.
China has spent nearly a decade developing reusable rocket technologies.
A system of reusable rockets will lower launch costs for China’s rapidly expanding commercial satellite constellations. — Reuters
