About 10 minutes after liftoff, a Long March 10B booster came down from space and steered itself toward a ship in the South China Sea. A four-legged frame stood on the vessel, with tensioned cables strung across it in a grid. The cables caught the rocket as it shut down its landing engines and left the smoldering booster hanging in midair.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned maker of the Long March family, announced the recovery on Friday. It is the first time China has brought back a reusable orbital-class booster.
The flight
The rocket left the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province. Seven kerosene-fueled engines pushed the approximately 209-foot-tall (63.6-meter) vehicle off the pad at 12:15 am EDT (04:15 UTC), which was 12:15 pm local time at the seaside spaceport.
The upper stage kept going into orbit and released a payload known only as CX-26. Chinese officials called the flight a “complete success.”
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, posted on X: “A historic day in China’s space program! China’s Long March 10B has successfully completed its maiden flight—and recovered its first stage via a sea-based net. This marks the country’s first-ever controlled rocket recovery. A major leap toward reusable launch capabilities.”
Third in line
With the landing, CASC and its subsidiary, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), became the third enterprise to recover a booster this way. SpaceX did it with a Falcon 9 in 2015 and with its Starship/Super Heavy booster in 2024. Blue Origin landed its New Glenn booster on an offshore platform for the first time last November.
The methods differ. SpaceX and Blue Origin fly their Falcon 9 and New Glenn boosters back with propulsive landings, setting them down on offshore platforms or onshore pads. For Starship, SpaceX pioneered a catch at its own launch pad, using mechanical arms mounted on the tower. China’s approach takes the rocket out of the air with a net of cables on a ship at sea.
