China successfully completed the first controlled recovery of an orbital-class reusable rocket booster on 10 July 2026, following the maiden launch of the Long March 10B carrier rocket from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan Province. The rocket’s first stage separated from the second stage after liftoff, made a controlled vertical descent over the South China Sea, and was captured by a shipborne net-based recovery system approximately eight minutes into the flight. With this achievement, China became the second country in the world, after the United States, to demonstrate orbital-class rocket reusability, a feat first accomplished by SpaceX in December 2015.
The Long March 10B Maiden Flight
The Long March 10B (CZ 10B) lifted off at 12:15 pm Beijing time (04:15 UTC) on 10 July 2026 from the Wenchang spaceport on the island of Hainan in southern China. Developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the rocket stands approximately 63 meters tall with a diameter of 5 meters. It has a liftoff thrust of about 890 tonnes and a liftoff mass of 760 tonnes.
The Long March 10B is a two-stage, medium-lift partially reusable launch vehicle. The first stage is powered by seven liquid oxygen-kerosene engines burning RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen. The second stage uses a single liquid oxygen-methane engine. In its reusable configuration, the rocket can deliver 16 tonnes of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO). It is the third variant in the Long March 10 family of rockets, which draws on technologies developed for the crew-rated Long March 10A that will carry China’s Mengzhou spacecraft to the Tiangong space station and later to the Moon.
The rocket successfully deployed a satellite into its target orbit hundreds of kilometres above Earth, completing its primary mission before the first-stage recovery was attempted. The entire ascent to orbital insertion took approximately 3,000 seconds after ignition.
How the Net-Based Recovery System Works
What sets the Long March 10B apart from other reusable rockets is its unique recovery method. Instead of using landing legs like SpaceX’s Falcon 9, the Chinese rocket relied on a net-based capture system mounted on an offshore platform. This approach simplifies the rocket’s onboard structure, reduces weight, and increases payload capacity.
The Four-Stage Descent Process
Approximately 150 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of about 100 kilometres, the first stage separated from the second stage and began its return to Earth at several times the speed of sound. The descent was executed in four distinct phases.
In the coasting and attitude adjustment phase, the stage deployed its grid fins and completed reentry attitude adjustments. A propellant settling management system guided the remaining fuel to the bottom of the tanks, ensuring readiness for engine restart.
In the powered deceleration phase, the first stage reignited its engines to brake before entering the denser layers of the atmosphere. This critical burn reduced velocity and prevented damage from intense aerodynamic heating during reentry.
The aerodynamic deceleration phase followed, during which the rocket relied on the drag generated by its grid fins to slow its descent. The bottom section of the stage experienced severe aerodynamic heating and structural loads, making this a key test of the rocket’s thermal protection design.
In the final landing phase, the rocket adopted a near-hover control strategy, with its grid fins and engines coordinating to reduce altitude and velocity to a state approaching zero relative motion above the recovery platform. An online trajectory planning system generated optimal control sequences in real time.
The Linghangzhe Recovery Platform
The recovery was carried out by a purpose-built vessel named the Linghangzhe (Navigator), which was stationed more than 300 kilometres from the launch site in the South China Sea. The ship measures 144 metres in length, 50 metres in width, and has a full-load displacement of 25,000 tonnes. It is equipped with DP2 dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to hold its position using thrusters that counter wind, waves, and currents.
As the first stage descended, the net-based recovery system used pulley-driven cables to engage with and capture the rocket. The rocket’s onboard navigation systems transmitted real-time velocity and location data to the ground control system, which adjusted the rocket’s attitude and speed accordingly. In the final moments, the rocket’s specialised metal hooks engaged with tensioned cables on the platform. After capture, auxiliary securing cables stabilised the rocket from multiple directions, and an automatic locking platform moved beneath it to complete the clamping process, effectively fastening the rocket securely.
China’s Path to Reusable Rockets
China’s successful booster recovery did not happen overnight. Two earlier attempts by Chinese rockets in December 2025 had ended in failure. The Zhuque 3, developed by private firm LandSpace, and the Long March 12A from CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology both attempted vertical landings using grid fins and landing legs similar to SpaceX. Both rockets crashed near their designated landing sites.
The Long March 10B’s success is part of a broader Chinese push toward reusable launch technology. The rocket is closely related to the Long March 10A, which is designed to carry astronauts in the Mengzhou spacecraft to both the Tiangong space station and, in a heavier tri-core configuration, to the Moon under China’s crewed lunar programme targeted before 2030. The Long March 10B serves as a cargo variant that will gather flight data and reduce development risks for the human-rated Long March 10A.
CASC has announced plans to refly the recovered first stage before the end of 2026, which would mark another milestone in validating the rocket’s reusability. Additionally, work is already underway on the Long March 10C, a larger all-methane rocket that builds on the 5-metre-diameter design of the 10B.
Significance for the Global Space Race
China’s entry into the reusable rocket club carries major implications for the global space industry.
The primary advantage of reusable rockets is cost reduction. By recovering and reusing the most expensive component of a launch vehicle, the cost per launch can be substantially lowered. SpaceX, which has successfully landed Falcon 9 boosters over 600 times as of mid 2026, has demonstrated the economic viability of this model. China’s breakthrough positions it to compete in the commercial launch market, particularly for deploying large LEO satellite constellations such as the Guowang megaconstellation, which requires thousands of satellites to be launched at high frequency.
The Long March 10B was specifically designed with commercial applications in mind. It is a product of China Rocket, the commercial spinoff of CALT, and is intended to serve the growing demand for low-cost, high-cadence launches for satellite internet and Earth observation.
On the strategic front, rocket reusability is a critical enabler for China’s lunar ambitions. The Long March 10 family is central to China’s goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by 2030, a timeline that directly parallels the US Artemis programme. Reliable reuse of boosters will be essential to sustain the launch cadence required for a crewed lunar campaign.
The net-based recovery approach also gives China a distinct technological identity in the reusable rocket domain. Unlike landing-leg systems, net-based recovery offers greater tolerance for landing deviations, allows a larger capture window, and keeps the rocket simpler and lighter. Analysts have described this as a potential competitive advantage for large-scale recovery operations.
Key Takeaways
- The Long March 10B made its maiden flight on 10 July 2026 from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan Province.
- It is China’s first orbital-class rocket to achieve a controlled booster recovery, making China the second country after the US to master this technology.
- The rocket’s first stage was recovered using the world’s first net-based recovery system on an offshore platform, unlike the landing-leg systems used by SpaceX.
- The recovery vessel Linghangzhe is a 25,000-tonne dynamically positioned platform equipped with a net-capture system.
- The Long March 10B is a 63-metre-tall, 5-metre-diameter rocket with 890 tonnes of liftoff thrust and a 16-tonne LEO payload capacity in reusable mode.
- The rocket was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subsidiary of CASC, which was established on 1 July 1999 with headquarters in Beijing.
- SpaceX became the first entity to recover an orbital-class rocket booster on 21 December 2015 during the Orbcomm OG2 M2 mission using a Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket.
