WENCHANG, July 10 — Nearly two years after its maiden flight, the Long March 10B has settled into service as a workhorse of China’s medium-lift fleet, offering a reusability capability that, for all the noise in the global launch market, remains relatively rare outside the private sector. The vehicle is a two-stage design. The first stage, 3.35 meters in diameter, stands approximately 60 meters tall.
It is powered by three YF-100K engines, each producing 1,200 kilonewtons of thrust at sea level, burning refined kerosene and liquid oxygen. The second stage uses a single YF-100M engine, optimised for vacuum operation.
The rocket can deliver up to 14,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit, or 8,000 kilograms to a 700-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit. The salient point about this vehicle, however, is not its payload capacity. It is that the first stage comes back.
The maiden flight took place on July 12, 2024, lifting off from Wenchang Space Launch Site at 9:00 a.m. Beijing time, or 01:00 UTC. The first stage separated approximately two minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of about 70 kilometres.
It then performed a boostback burn, a reentry burn, and a landing burn, touching down at a pre-designated landing pad five kilometres from the launch site. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, reported landing accuracy within one metre of the target. That mission also deployed the Shiyan-24A test satellite, weighing approximately 500 kilograms, into a 600-kilometre circular orbit.
CASC reported the total mission cost at approximately 800 million yuan, or about $110 million. A single, dry aside: for a government-operated programme to achieve sub-metre landing precision on a first attempt, while also delivering a payload to a precise orbit, is not something one sees every week. It would seem the engineering teams at CASC had done their homework.
The vehicle’s design choices are notably conventional by modern standards. The 3.35-meter diameter is a common Chinese workhorse dimension, and the YF-100 engine family has been in development for years.
The kerosene-liquid oxygen propellant combination is standard for first-stage reusability, avoiding the soot and coking issues that plague kerosene in upper-stage applications. The second stage’s vacuum-optimised YF-100M engine suggests CASC is treating the upper stage as a single-use element, which is the current industry norm for medium-lift vehicles. The first stage, meanwhile, appears designed for multiple flights, though CASC has not yet disclosed the intended reuse cycle.
For all the noise about commercial reusable rockets from the United States, it is worth noting that the Long March 10B represents a state-owned enterprise achieving similar technical milestones. The landing accuracy figure, in particular, suggests a guidance and control system that is operating at a high level of maturity.
The Shiyan-24A satellite, deployed on the maiden flight, is part of a series of Chinese test satellites. The specific payloads and missions of the Shiyan series are not always publicly detailed, but the successful deployment to a 600-kilometre circular orbit indicates the vehicle’s upper stage performed its burn profile correctly. The total mission cost of approximately 800 million yuan, or about $110 million, places the Long March 10B in a competitive range for medium-lift launches.
That figure includes the first stage recovery and landing, which adds complexity and cost to the mission profile. Whether the economics of reuse will bring that figure down on subsequent flights remains to be seen. The vehicle’s performance envelope — 14,000 kilograms to LEO, 8,000 kilograms to a 700-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit — positions it in the same class as several international medium-lift vehicles.
The sun-synchronous orbit capacity is particularly relevant for Earth observation and remote sensing satellite constellations. The launch site at Wenchang, on Hainan Island, offers advantages for this class of vehicle.
Its coastal location allows for over-ocean flight paths, and its relatively low latitude provides a boost to payload capacity for equatorial and low-inclination orbits. What to watch next: CASC has not announced a date for the second flight of the Long March 10B, but the vehicle’s integration into the regular launch manifest would seem a logical next step. The reusability data from the first flight will be under close scrutiny, both within China and by international observers.
If the first stage can be flown again without extensive refurbishment, the economics of the programme could shift significantly. The Long March 10B is not the flashiest vehicle on the pad.
It is not the largest, nor the most powerful. But it is a working, reusable medium-lift rocket, built by a state-owned enterprise, that landed within a metre of its target on its first attempt. That is a fact worth noting.
