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On July 10, China successfully demonstrated its reusable rocket landing capability. The Long March (LM)-10B mission, capable of placing 16 tonnes into low earth orbit, was launched from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site in Hainan.

After the launch, in about six minutes of liftoff, LM-10B’s booster (the first stage of the rocket) separated from its upper stage and executed a controlled descent. Finally, the booster landed on a floating sea platform, where it was captured by a net.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

The booster’s successful recovery was the result of several years of reusable launch vehicle research. Before China, only SpaceX and Blue Origin had successfully demonstrated reusable rocket recovery. With LM-10B’s successful recovery, China has become the first state actor in the world to possess this ability.

The development of reusable launch systems has been happening in the United States since 2010 and it was SpaceX which successfully operationalised this technology around 2015-2017. Blue Origin’s New Glenn demonstrated similar capability in November 2025. Till date, SpaceX has successfully completed around 650 recoveries of its first-stage Falcon rocket boosters.

The first stage of a satellite launch vehicle is its most powerful section. It provides the massive initial thrust needed to lift the vehicle off the launch pad (against Earth’s gravity), and propel the rocket through the thickest parts of the lower atmosphere. This stage is the most expensive of the entire rocket system. It normally amounts to 60% to 75% of the total rocket’s manufacturing cost (mostly the cost factor varies based on the nature of the mission).

The recovery of the rocket’s first stage back to earth involves a process where, after the first stage’s separation, it reorients itself using its thrusters and re-enters the atmosphere under aerodynamic control and fires its engines to slow its descent. During atmospheric re-entry, the booster deploys grid fins, which provide stability, steer the vehicle and guide it along a controlled descent for precise........

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