Blue Origin · Starlink · SpaceX · China · South Korea · Ars Technica
China recovered its first reusable rocket and caught a new way to do it
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China’s sprawling state-owned rocket developer, maker of the country’s Long March rocket family, announced it recovered a reusable orbital-class booster for the first time Friday in the South China Sea.
Key facts
- Other Chinese rockets that could soon achieve reusability include Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3, China Commercial Rocket Co
- SpaceX did it with its Falcon 9 rocket in 2015 and with its Starship/Super Heavy booster in 2024
- The Long March 10B has two stages, with seven YF-100K engines on the booster consuming kerosene and liquid oxygen, and a single methane-fueled YF-219 engine on the second stage
- SpaceX has used the Falcon 9’s rapid-fire launch cadence to deploy more than 12,000 satellites for its commercial Starlink Internet network
Summary
The milestone mission began with the liftoff of a Long March 10B rocket from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province. About 10 minutes later, the Long March 10B booster descended from space and guided itself into a four-legged frame affixed to an offshore vessel. “A historic day in China’s space program!” wrote Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, on X. The landing on Friday makes the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and its subsidiary, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the third enterprise to accomplish this feat.