China's Long March rocket blasted off in a historic launch on Friday.
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SpaceX is flying high off the back of a record-breaking IPO, but China looks determined to bring Elon Musk back down to Earth.China successfully landed the booster stage of its Long March-10B reusable rocket on Friday, the first time it has launched and partially returned a reusable orbital rocket safely to Earth.It means that China's Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, which built the rocket, joins Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin as the only organizations to have successfully landed a rocket booster.Mao Ning, the spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an X post that it is a "major leap toward reusable launch capabilities." A historic day in China’s space program!China’s Long March-10B has successfully completed its maiden flight—and recovered its first stage via a sea-based net. This marks the country’s first-ever controlled rocket recovery. A major leap toward reusable launch capabilities.… pic.twitter.com/FWuQXLltaD— Mao Ning 毛宁 (@SpoxCHN_MaoNing) July 10, 2026
Local media reported that the Long March rocket's first stage touched down on a barge around six minutes after launch and was captured by a large net — reportedly the world's first ever "net-based recovery" of a rocket.Landing a first-stage booster, rather than letting it burn up on reentry, is a key milestone in building reusable rockets, which significantly lowers launch costs. SpaceX landed its first booster in 2015 and has since launched and successfully recovered its Falcon 9 rocket hundreds of times.In 2024, SpaceX wowed the world by catching the nearly 400-foot-tall superheavy booster — which is used to propel its next-generation Starship rocket into orbit — with the chopstick-like arms of its "Mechazilla" launch tower.
