Long March 10B Achieves Historic Net Recover

The rocket places in the Falcon 9 performance class.

Jul 10, 2026

Not China eVTOL news specific, but I wanted to note today’s event at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site and share a gallery below of images from the China National Space Agency (CNSA) and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

Briefly, the Long March‑10B launched and successfully recovered its first stage via the world’s first maritime net‑based capture of an orbital‑class booster.

I wrote up the news for Aviation Week—my second after China’s Rocket Startup Validates Pre‑Cooling Ground Campaign published late last month.

Thank you to the good folks of Aviation Week for their continued support.

The Long March‑10B is a two‑stage, 5‑meter‑diameter rocket developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) — a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) — with a reusable LEO payload of 16 tonnes.

Its first stage uses LOX/kerosene; the second uses LOX/methane.

At approximately 63 meters in length, with a liftoff mass of about 760 tonnes and liftoff thrust of roughly 890 tonnes, the Long March‑10B’s defining performance metric — 16 tonnes to LEO in reusable mode — places it squarely in the Falcon 9 payload class, which delivers approximately 17.5 tonnes in its own reusable configuration.

Instead of landing legs, the booster was captured by a net system aboard the 25,000‑tonne vessel “Navigator” — the world’s first successful maritime net‑based recovery of an orbital‑class booster.

Eliminating landing legs reduces vehicle mass and increases payload capacity, CASC said.

The significance — Recovery addresses the fundamental economics of space access—the first stage represents roughly 60% to 70% of a rocket’s total vehicle cost, according to industry data cited by Chinese state media.

Making reuse operational is what allows the deployment of China’s planned 20,000+ satellite constellations (Qianfan and Guowang).

Perhaps more strategically, the data and experience from the mission directly support the Long March‑10 crewed lunar program, with China targeting a moon landing before 2030.

This positions China as the second nation—after the United States—to master orbital‑class booster recovery.