SpaceX lands its rockets on legs. Blue Origin uses a platform. China just caught one in a giant net.
China has recovered the first stage of an orbital rocket for the first time. The milestone pulls it into a club with only two other members. On Friday, the booster of a Long March-10B lifted off from Hainan Island, separated, and flew back to a barge at sea, the Associated Press reports, citing state media.
The landing came with a twist. About six minutes after launch, the first stage settled onto the platform and was snared by a large net. Local media called it the world’s first “net-based recovery” of a rocket, according to Business Insider.
With it, China’s state-owned Aerospace Science and Technology Corp joins an exclusive club. Only SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had landed a rocket booster before. Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokesperson, called it “a major leap toward reusable launch capabilities”.
Why catching a booster matters
