China's Long March 10B Makes First Successful Reusable Rocket Booster Recovery
On July 10, 2026, China's Long March 10B rocket lifted off from Hainan and successfully recovered its booster on an offshore platform approximately six minutes after stage separation, making China the second nation in history to achieve controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster.
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The report
On July 10, 2026, China successfully recovered a reusable orbital-class rocket booster for the first time, becoming the second nation in history to achieve this milestone. The Long March 10B rocket lifted off from the Hainan launch site in southern China at 12:15 pm local time (04:15 GMT), and approximately six minutes after stage separation, its first-stage booster returned vertically and was recovered on an offshore floating platform.
The Long March 10B uses a distinct recovery mechanism from other reusable rockets: 'landing hooks' that catch a net attached to the floating sea platform. This differs from SpaceX's Falcon 9, which uses deployable legs to land on a ground pad or drone ship. The Long March 10B is capable of carrying a payload of at least 16 metric tons to low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX became the first entity to land a reusable rocket booster from an orbital flight in December 2015, establishing the technical feasibility of the approach. The Falcon 9 now launches approximately 150 times per year, with individual boosters reused dozens of times. Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket completed an orbital booster landing more recently, in November 2025.
BBC News reported that China made its first attempt at reusable rocket booster recovery in February 2026 using a Long March 10A, which completed a controlled descent but splashed down next to the recovery platform rather than landing on it. The Straits Times separately noted that LandSpace and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation made failed booster recovery attempts in 2025.
The South China Morning Post reported that the Long March 10B is 63 metres tall and 5 metres wide, and that the maiden flight delivered its satellite payload into a predetermined orbit while validating the rocket's design for first-stage reusability. These technical details and mission outcomes were cited by the outlet from state broadcaster CCTV.
The Straits Times reported that China's stated rationale for developing reusable rockets is to lower launch costs for its rapidly expanding commercial satellite constellations, and that the successful recovery is expected to help cut launch costs. According to the same outlet, China has spent nearly a decade developing reusable rocket technologies and has eased IPO rules for firms developing reusable rockets to help them raise funding.
The Straits Times also reported that the Long March 10 family of rockets is being developed to support China's crewed lunar missions before 2030, and that China plans to reuse the recovered Long March 10B booster stage in another launch by the end of 2026.
Shares in China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications each rose by 10% — the maximum daily limit permitted under Chinese financial market regulations — following the news of the successful recovery.
What the coverage shows
Background
- Reusable rocket technology, pioneered by SpaceX with the Falcon 9 in December 2015, dramatically reduces the cost of access to space by allowing the most expensive component — the booster — to be reflown multiple times. Blue Origin's New Glenn achieved a second precedent in November 2025. China's success makes it only the third operator and second nation to achieve this.
- The Long March 10B's recovery mechanism differs from SpaceX's: instead of autonomously landing on legs on a pad or drone ship, it uses 'landing hooks' to snag a net on a floating offshore platform, a novel engineering approach.
- China had experienced prior setbacks in booster recovery: a Long March 10A nearly reached the platform in February 2026 but splashed down beside it, and separate 2025 attempts by LandSpace and CASC both failed at the final landing stage.
- The Long March 10 family is part of China's broader human spaceflight ambitions, with crewed lunar missions targeted before 2030, and the government has introduced supportive policies such as eased IPO rules for commercial reusable rocket firms.
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