On July 10, China achieved a major milestone as a space power by successfully recovering the first stage of a Long March 10B rocket in its maiden flight. It becomes only the second country and only the third entity after US SpaceX and Blue Origin to do so with an orbit-capable rocket. This is a huge leap forward for China’s ambitions for both orbit and the Moon, as this capability enables more frequent, cheaper launches. While the US may lead the space race in both total annual launches and Moon missions, the Middle Kingdom has significantly closed the gap.
Long March 10B accomplishes the retrieval in a unique way that you might have thought about when you were 8 years old: It’s entangled in a giant net. That net is a huge construction built on top of a ship; It is under tension and uses hydraulic damping space news. The first stage booster itself has hooks to hold the net. As you can see in the video of the capture, it flies itself into the net structure and then cuts its engines while still above deck. In contrast, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Blue Origin’s New Glenn have landing legs. Skipping the legs saves valuable weight. Plus, the feet really need to hit them. perfect landing target, but a net gives the rocket a little more leeway, per reuters. (SpaceX’s Starship prototype also gives up its legs instead of being held up by giant “chopsticks” on the recovery towers.)
Rocket recovery advances China’s space ambitions
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is the superhero of space rocketry, accounting for more than half of all rocket launches globally in 2025. It can do this because its first stage booster (the part that powers the rest of it in orbit) can be recovered on a drone boat, quickly refurbished, and then put back to work. This both increases launch cadence (because SpaceX doesn’t have to wait for a brand new booster to be built) and reduces launch costs (for the same reason). That capability has allowed the company to put thousands of Starlink satellites into orbit, which wasn’t possible even a decade ago.
China has its own designs for a megaconstellation, including 200,000 orbiters. But so far, the nation has managed only 400 new York Times. The reach of the country has by now gone far beyond his grasp. If it can now reuse its boosters like SpaceX can (planned for later this year), its reach is going to extend much further.
And by “far” I mean the Moon. This rocket, the Long March 10B, is a medium-lift cargo version of the still-in-development Long March 10, which will carry Chinese taikonauts to the lunar surface by 2030. The successful recovery is a significant milestone for the rocket family, meaning the Moon landing is highly likely to occur on schedule. NASA still plans to attempt a landing in 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission, but this depends on one or both of the potential landers succeeding in their tests on Artemis III. This generation’s space race is very close and tight.
