BEIJING, July 10 — How do you catch a rocket that has just hurled itself toward space? The answer, Chinese engineers have demonstrated, involves a floating platform, four landing legs, and a set of grid fins that steer the booster back through the atmosphere with remarkable precision. The Long March 10B, a new Chinese launch vehicle, has achieved its first successful recovery at sea.
The booster touched down vertically on a floating platform, marking a significant step in China’s push to develop reusable rocket technology. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has not disclosed exact cost savings from the approach, but estimates a 30% reduction in launch costs once the system is operational.
How the landing works
The mechanism is intriguingly similar to the technique pioneered by SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The Long March 10B uses a vertical landing technique with four landing legs and grid fins — aerodynamic surfaces that unfold after stage separation to steer the booster as it falls back through the atmosphere. The first stage is powered by kerosene-liquid oxygen engines, designated YF-100K, rather than the Merlin engines used on the Falcon 9.
There is one key difference in the landing approach. While Falcon 9 boosters have landed on both drone ships at sea and ground pads, the Long March 10B first stage touched down on a floating platform in the sea.
This maritime recovery method reflects China’s incremental testing strategy — this flight was the first of a planned series of five recovery tests running through 2025.
Where China fits in the global picture
The successful recovery places China in a global context of reusable rocket development that has been accelerating for a decade. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 achieved its first booster landing on December 21, 2015, and has since completed over 300 successful landings. That track record has driven launch costs down to approximately $2,700 per kilogram to low Earth orbit — a figure that has reshaped the commercial launch market.
India’s space agency, ISRO, has also entered the field. It conducted a successful landing test of its Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) on April 2, 2023, at the Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range.
That test involved a smaller, winged vehicle rather than a vertical-landing booster, representing a different technical path to reusability. The Long March 10B’s payload capacity of 10 metric tons to low Earth orbit is comparable to the Falcon 9’s 22.8 metric tons. The Chinese vehicle carries less than half the payload of its American counterpart, but the gap reflects different design priorities and the early stage of China’s reusable rocket programme.
What comes next
CASC has laid out a clear testing roadmap. This first recovery test is the beginning of a planned series of five recovery tests through 2025. Each successive flight is expected to refine the landing algorithms, engine throttling, and grid fin control needed to make the system reliable enough for operational use.
The 30% cost reduction estimate, if realised, would make the Long March 10B significantly cheaper than China’s existing expendable rockets, though still more expensive per kilogram than the Falcon 9’s current pricing. The economics of reusability depend heavily on how many times a booster can be reflown — a figure CASC has not yet disclosed for the Long March 10B.
What researchers found during this first test will inform the design of the remaining four flights. The floating platform recovery adds complexity compared to ground landings — sea states, wind, and platform motion all affect the final approach. But it also offers flexibility, allowing launches to proceed without requiring a landing pad downrange.
The next test in the series will be watched closely by the global launch industry. China has signalled that reusability is a strategic priority, and the Long March 10B represents its most serious attempt to date at matching the operational model that SpaceX proved viable.
Whether the YF-100K engines can match the Merlin’s restart reliability across multiple flights remains an open question — one that the remaining four tests are designed to answer.
