China is making progress

Making progress in catching up with SpaceX - and Space 2.0 

China recovered their first orbital booster on an offshore drone ship. 

The nation has recovered a rocket during an orbital launch for the first time ever, pulling off the feat during the Long March 10B's maiden liftoff on Friday (July 10). And that recovery was unique: The rocket's first stage nestled softly into a net-like structure carried by a ship at sea.

"This mission marks my country's first successful controlled recovery of a launch vehicle and the world's first network-based recovery of a launch vehicle," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced via social media shortly after the launch. (Translation by Google.) "It signifies a historic breakthrough for my country in the field of reusable rocket technology and will lay a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of my country's space access capabilities." 

We don't know much about the Long March 10B, other than that it's 63 meters tall (about 207 feet) and the first stage burns kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants, the same as the Falcon 9's Merlin engines. Unlike the Falcon 9, which uses the same propellant for the upper stage, the Long March's second stage uses LOX and liquid methane.  

As we're talking about dealing with China, which means the CCP, there aren't many details available. They say the launch carried a satellite and it successfully achieved "its predetermined orbit," and I'll accept that since there are no claims otherwise. 

The first stage of a Chinese Long March 10B rocket comes down for a landing at sea after successfully sending a satellite to orbit on July 10, 2026. (Image credit: CCTV)

I would like to know what that black smoke coming out of the top of the booster is, and if that's expected, though. 

Up until now, the Chinese launch sector has been working toward other booster landings and recoveries, but hasn't used any for missions like this. I consider this a probable success, and a major improvement. Don't forget we've seen documented situations of Chinese launches culminating in dropping the booster on populated areas. This one is nearly six years ago. 

Honestly, Booster reuse hasn't been as widely used around the industry as I expected it to be.  SpaceX is the obvious and clear leader. Yesterday's post on the 36th flight of B1062 posted that it was the 635th booster landing to date for SpaceX. New Glenn has had a couple of successful landings but hasn't reflown once - the booster that exploded on the launch pad at the end of May was going to be their first attempt. And New Glenn is the only other large vehicle that has attempted landing and reuse. Rocket Lab has landed some of their Electron boosters and done some reuse flights, but Electron lifts much smaller payloads than Falcon 9 does.

SpaceX has been a bit heavily guarding details on how much they save, but rumors go around that a flight they charge in the vicinity of $60 million for actually costs in the $10 to $15 million range.