China is not only in the AI arms race with the US but it is also competing with America to prove that the global space race is no longer a one-man show. Soon after Elon Musk’s SpaceX record-breaking initial public offering (IPO), Beijing has achieved a historic aerospace milestone by successfully launching and landing the first-stage booster of its Long March-10B reusable rocket. The breakthrough marks the first time China has safely returned a reusable orbital rocket to Earth. With this achievement, China’s state-owned Aerospace Science and Technology Corp officially joins SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as the only three organisations in human history to successfully land an orbital rocket booster.
China’s world-first net catch
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Beijing Evening News, a Chinese language tabloid newspaper (via Business Insider), the Long March rocket’s first stage executed a clean partial return, touching down on a sea barge roughly six minutes after liftoff. Instead of traditional landing legs, the booster was captured mid-air by a specialised net, marking the world’s very first successful ‘net-based recovery’ of a rocket.BREAKING｜WORLD‑FIRST ACHIEVEMENT! #China’s Long March 10B carrier #rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch site at 12:15 pm on Jul. 10. Approximately six minutes after the separation of the rocket’s first and second stages, the first stage made a vertical return and was successfully recovered by an offshore recovery platform. This marks China’s first successful implementation of controlled recovery of a launch vehicle’s first stage, as well as the world’s first net-based recovery of a launch vehicle.
China joins ‘elite rocket club’
With this achievement, China has now entered an area where American billionaires have spent a decade setting benchmarks. For example, Elon Musk’s SpaceX pioneered the technology, landing its first booster back in 2015. Since then, it has successfully recovered its Falcon 9 rocket multiple times. In 2024, SpaceX surprised the world by using the giant “chopstick” mechanical arms of its “Mechazilla” launch tower to catch its massive, 400-foot-tall Starship Super Heavy booster right out of the sky.Jeff Bezos’ space firm, Blue Origin, joined the orbital landing club last November when its towering New Glenn rocket successfully landed its first stage on an ocean platform in the Atlantic. However, Bezos’ company has faced recent turbulence, including a New Glenn rocket exploding on its launchpad in May.
