China has recovered the first stage of an orbital-class rocket, a feat only one other country had managed, and it did so with a method SpaceX has never used. The Long March 10B made its debut flight on Friday, July 10, 2026. Its booster was caught by a net on a ship off Hainan rather than touching down on legs.
The Space Economy Institute described the event as a successful test of a sea-based recovery system. Chinese state media channel Xinhua released footage of the booster being pulled into the net about six minutes after the stages separated.
A different recovery design
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn both land on their legs. The Long March 10B carries four landing hooks instead, which grip taut cables attached to the recovery vessel. According to Chinese launch developers cited by the Institute, dropping the legs cuts structural mass and improves both payload capacity and recovery flexibility. The same design is believed to allow a wider margin of error in landing coordinates.
The rocket is being developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology for commercial use. It is designed to carry at least 16 metric tons to low Earth orbit. Chinese reports indicate that the recovered booster should fly again before the end of the year. Nothing so far shows a Long March stage flying twice, and the Institute called a second flight the real proof point of operational reusability.
Competing readings
Reaction split along familiar lines. Space entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky said the US monopoly on affordable reusability was dead, adding that the step would push costs down and support plans for satellite deployment and lunar crew missions. Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera took a narrower view. One flight, he said, did not dethrone SpaceX, but it did undermine the belief that there is only one way back from space. Pakistani columnist Javed Hassan pointed to China’s record of scaling up complicated technology quickly once prototypes exist.
The Institute framed the launch as a matter of national strategy as well as price. China is building large satellite constellations, expanding its commercial launch sector and preparing crewed lunar missions before 2030. Chinese policy in recent years has encouraged commercial rocket firms and capital-market access for companies working on reusable launchers. The Institute’s own caution was plain: recovery is only the first step, and the business case depends on whether boosters can be reused quickly, safely and economically across several flights.
Demand for launches
Demand is rising regardless of who builds the rockets. This week Goldman Sachs raised its projection for satellite launches into low-Earth orbit in 2031 to 305,000 satellites, up from an earlier estimate of 42,000. The bank attributed the increase mainly to space-based data centres rather than satellite internet.
For customers, more reusable providers could bring more competition, more available launches and potentially lower prices. For governments, the Institute noted, dependable national access to space is becoming a strategic capability.
Sources
- China’s Long March 10B Recovery: A New Reusable Rocket Milestone for the Space Economy – Space Economy Institute
- China's Long March-10B rocket recovery shakes up space race
