China has recovered the first stage of an orbital rocket for reuse for the first time, joining the United States as the only countries to have pulled off the feat.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said on Friday it successfully recovered the first stage of its Long March-10B rocket after launch using a sea-based recovery system.
The 63-meter (207-foot)-tall Long March-10B lifted off at around 12:15 p.m. Beijing time (0415 GMT) and successfully placed its payload into orbit.
About six minutes after separating from the upper stage, the first-stage booster made a controlled descent before being caught by a net aboard an offshore recovery vessel.
Both the launch and recovery succeeded.
A growing global race
This marks China's entry into the small club of nations capable of recovering orbital-class rocket boosters for potential reuse – a technique pioneered and refined by US company SpaceX with its Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX achieved the first successful vertical landing of an orbital booster on land in December 2015 and has since landed hundreds, dramatically lowering launch costs by flying the same hardware multiple times.
Instead of landing legs like SpaceX's Falcon 9, China's Long March-10B first stage was caught mid-air by a net on the "Linghangzhe" recovery ship.
That makes China only the second country in the world to achieve a controlled orbital-class booster recovery – and the first to do it with a net rather than landing legs.
Innovation race accelerates
But the world's two largest economies are not the only ones in this contest.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, is set to test-launch its own prototype reusable rocket on Saturday.
US-New Zealand company Rocket Lab is already flying and actively recovering its small Electron rocket boosters by splashing them down in the ocean to refurbish them.
In Europe, the European Space Agency and ArianeGroup have not yet launched the Themis reusable rocket prototype, as the vehicle is currently undergoing pad-testing procedures in preparation for its first low-altitude flight.
Russia is in the early engineering and design phase for the Amur-SPG, a planned methane-fueled rocket meant to copy SpaceX's vertical landing method.
However its first prototype flight has been delayed until at least 2030.
Why reusable rockets matter
The first stage is typically the most expensive part of a rocket.
For decades, launch vehicles were designed to be used only once before falling into the ocean or burning up in the atmosphere.
Recovering and flying the same booster again spreads manufacturing costs across multiple missions, potentially lowering launch costs while allowing operators to launch more frequently.
SpaceX changed the economics of spaceflight when it landed a Falcon 9 first-stage booster for the first time.
Since then, the company has made booster recovery routine, with some first stages flying more than 20 missions. Blue Origin has repeatedly reused its New Shepard suborbital rocket.
Years in the making
For years, China relied on expendable Long March rockets while focusing on building its Tiangong space station, carrying out lunar and Mars exploration missions, and expanding its satellite launch capabilities.
As demand for launches accelerated with the growth of commercial satellites and planned broadband constellations, Chinese engineers increasingly shifted their focus towards reusable systems.
The effort gained momentum over the past two years.
CASC and its subsidiary – the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) – developed multiple reusable rocket concepts, while private firms including LandSpace, Space Pioneer and Deep Blue Aerospace began pursuing reusable boosters through a series of vertical takeoff and landing tests.
LandSpace tried and failed to land a booster for the first time in December, watching it explode during descent.
Days later, the state-backed Long March-12A also failed to recover its stage.
Earlier this year, a test version of the Long March-10 booster completed a controlled ocean splashdown without attempting recovery by net.
There is a nearer-term goal too.
China is building its own answer to Starlink, a planned satellite network called "Guowang," which aims to deploy approximately 13,000 satellites by the 2030s.
