China Becomes Second Nation to Recover an Orbital Rocket Booster With Long March 10B
Date: 2026-07-10
Featured image: Long March 10B lifting off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site on July 10, 2026. Credit: Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu
China joined the United States as the only nation to recover an orbital-class rocket booster on Friday, when the maiden flight of the Long March 10B launched from Hainan Island and returned its first stage to a net-based capture system on a ship in the South China Sea.
The launch at 12:15 p.m. Beijing time (0415 UTC) from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site inserted an unnamed satellite into low Earth orbit. Approximately 11 minutes after liftoff, the first stage executed a controlled powered descent and was caught by tensioned cables on the recovery vessel Linghang Zhe (Navigator), positioned several hundred kilometers southeast of Wenchang. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed full mission success over 90 minutes later.
The achievement places China in an exclusive club. Only SpaceX’s Falcon 9 (first recovery in December 2015), Blue Origin’s New Glenn (2025), and SpaceX’s Starship have previously demonstrated orbital booster recovery. The Long March 10B is the first rocket to succeed at booster recovery on its very first orbital attempt.
A different approach: catch, don’t land
The Long March 10B’s recovery method differs from the powered-landing-on-legs approach pioneered by SpaceX. Instead of deploying landing gear and touching down on a pad or drone ship, China designed a net-based system: metal hooks deploy from the booster’s interstage, and the ship’s rail-mounted dollies position tensioned cables in real time using telemetry data. The descending booster engages the net, and hydraulic dampers absorb the kinetic energy.
The approach has a key advantage: eliminating landing legs saves substantial mass and structural complexity on the first stage, translating directly to payload capacity. The Long March 10B can deliver 16,000 kilograms (35,274 pounds) to low Earth orbit in reusable mode, comparable to Falcon 9’s reusable capacity of approximately 15,600 kilograms.
“It’s the world’s first successful net-system recovery of a carrier rocket,” CASC said in a statement.
The recovery ship Linghang Zhe is a dedicated 25,000-ton vessel measuring 144 meters (472 feet) in length, equipped with dynamic positioning (DP2) thrusters for precise station-keeping.
The rocket that will take China to the Moon
The Long March 10B is more than a reusable workhorse. It is a direct precursor to the crewed Long March 10A, which will carry China’s Mengzhou spacecraft, and the tri-core Long March 10, designed for crewed lunar landings. All three variants share the same 5-meter-diameter first stage powered by seven YF-100K kerosene-liquid oxygen engines generating approximately 8,750 kilonewtons of sea-level thrust.
The second stage introduces a new engine: the YF-219, burning methane and liquid oxygen, making its maiden flight on this mission. Methane propulsion is considered a stepping stone toward engines that could eventually be refueled on the Moon or Mars.
CASC aims to refly the recovered booster by the end of 2026, which would mark the next milestone in China’s reusability program. The timeline is aggressive: SpaceX took 16 months between its first successful recovery (December 2015) and its first refly of a recovered booster (March 2017).
A quick maturation process
China’s path to orbital booster recovery has been rapid. A suborbital test of a Long March 10A single-stage demonstrator in February 2026 executed a controlled splashdown approximately 200 meters from its recovery platform. The July 10 orbital mission achieved full recovery on the first attempt: a feat that eluded SpaceX, which required five attempts before its first successful landing.
The rapid progress reflects the priority China has placed on reusable launch technology. Unlike the Falcon 9, which recovered boosters primarily for cost savings on commercial and Starlink missions, the Long March 10 family has a strategic goal: enabling China’s crewed lunar program. The same first-stage design will eventually power the missions that put Chinese astronauts on the Moon.
SpaceNews correspondent Andrew Jones noted that the successful recovery represents “a huge boost to both China’s desire to develop reusable rocket capabilities, and for its crewed lunar program.”
The 5-meter-diameter stage, the net-catch system, and the methane upper stage all represent choices tailored to China’s specific requirements. Whether the net approach proves as reliable at scale as Falcon 9’s landing legs will take years of operational experience to determine. For now, China has demonstrated that there is more than one way to bring a booster home.