China Lands Reusable Rocket Booster at Sea, Joining SpaceX in Orbital Recovery Era

CASC's Long March 10B first stage was caught by a net system on a sea platform after delivering a satellite to orbit — only the second nation to pull off an orbital booster recovery.

China achieved a milestone in spaceflight on July 10, 2026, when the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) successfully recovered the first stage of a Long March 10B rocket after it delivered a satellite to orbit — making China only the second nation, after the United States, to land an orbital-class booster.

The Long March 10B lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site at 12:15 a.m. EDT and deployed an undisclosed satellite into its predetermined orbit. Approximately six minutes after stage separation, the first stage returned vertically and was caught by a net system suspended on a sea-based recovery vessel — a different approach from SpaceX's Falcon 9, which uses onboard landing legs to settle onto a drone ship.

CASC plans to refly the recovered booster by the end of 2026. In reusable mode, the Long March 10B can carry roughly 16 tons to low Earth orbit, comparable to the Falcon 9. The 207-foot rocket burns kerosene and liquid oxygen in its first stage, while the second stage uses liquid oxygen and liquid methane.

The successful recovery puts China on a path to dramatically lower space launch costs, enabling expanded satellite communications networks that could compete with SpaceX's Starlink in markets across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. For the U.S. military, it signals a narrowing of the strategic advantage once held exclusively by American reusable rockets.

Sources: Space.com, TechCrunch, CGTN