China ushers in the era of reusable rockets—what’s the mystery behind the world’s first “net-based recovery”?

China successfully implemented a controlled, reusable recovery of the first stage of a launch vehicle for the first time.

According to a message from the official account of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, at 12:15 on July 10, 2026, the Long March 10 Beta carrier rocket lifted off from Hainan commercial space launch site. About 6 minutes after the first- and second-stage separation, the first stage returned vertically and was successfully recovered on a sea recovery platform.

This marks that, after the United States, China has become the world’s second country to master heavy-lift reusable rocket technology, and also the world’s first country to master rocket recovery technology for net-based recovery.

The Long March 10 Beta rocket adopts a two-stage tandem configuration with solid rods; the core-stage diameter is 5 meters and the total length is about 70 meters. It is a large liquid carrier rocket with reusability capability.

Its first stage is equipped with 7 YF-100K liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, and its second stage is equipped with 1 YF-219 liquid oxygen/methane engine. In a fully recovered first-stage configuration, the payload-to-near-Earth orbit capability is no less than 16 tons, with transport capacity indicators in the same range as the US SpaceX Falcon 9.

The biggest highlight of this launch is that it validated China’s first-invented sea-based net recovery technology, carving out a rocket recovery route completely different from that of the United States.

In this mission, the airframe uses a net-capture recovery method. A flexible net structure on the sea platform buffers the landing impact, and the airframe is ultimately recovered. The rocket therefore moves from the technology demonstration phase to the actual mission capability verification phase.

The Long March 10 Beta’s first stage has canceled the heavy landing legs and instead added a hook device. When the rocket is preparing to decelerate for landing, the recovery vessel deployed in the predetermined sea area will unfold a “井字” (grid) shaped flexible net system; recovery is completed through coordination between the hook and the net system.

Image source: Official account video screenshot of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

“The biggest advantage of net recovery is reliability and increased rocket payload capacity.” An industry insider told Interface News. However, this technology scheme imposes high precision requirements on both the rocket and the recovery ship; both “getting the rocket right on target” and “keeping the ship stable” must be achieved to enable perfect contact and recovery.

On the rocket side, the airframe needs deep throttling and multiple ignition capability, as well as a fast-response, highly reliable engine. Deep throttling can be understood as having a wide throttle adjustment range with a mainly low lower limit, because low thrust is beneficial for landing control.

The airframe also needs a high-precision guidance, navigation, and control system to ensure the rocket reaches the predetermined location at the correct attitude and speed. It must have a thermal protection system to ensure the airframe can withstand the erosion and impact caused by high-speed atmospheric reentry and throttled ignition for deceleration.

For example, the Long March 10 Beta rocket uses high-precision guidance and control technology combined with ground range measurement and tracking. The airframe can precisely pass through the “window” measuring 54 meters x 54 meters of the shipborne recovery tower to reach the landing area.

On the ship side, it requires the vessel to have a high-precision dynamic positioning system to ensure the ship’s position deviation stays within 1 meter and effectively suppresses rolling and swinging. It also needs a high-strength, agile recovery mechanism that can gently pick up the airframe, absorb the impact, and withstand the erosion and soot-blow effects from the rocket engine. A complete measurement and control system is needed to monitor the ship and rocket status in real time and issue control adjustments. Supporting auxiliary equipment, including fire-fighting, anchoring, work support, and personnel support, must also be in place.

“Navigator” (领航者) vessel moored at Sanya Nanshan Port Source: Sanya Municipal People’s Government website

The recovery ship “Navigator” involved in this mission is the world’s first rocket net-based recovery offshore platform. The ship is 144 meters long and 50 meters wide, with a full-load displacement of 25k tons. It has DP2-class dynamic positioning capability, allowing it to maintain positioning accuracy better than 0.5 meters under 4-meter wave heights, providing a stable “target” for the rocket.

Based on the analysis by the above industry insider, during net insertion, most of the rocket’s kinetic and potential energy is absorbed by the shipborne buffering mechanism, greatly reducing the requirements for the rocket’s onboard buffering structure. At the same time, it can better solve the issue of landing-point deviation, so the reliability of the net recovery方案 is high.

“The Long March 10 Beta net-capture device reduces the precision control requirements for the first stage via three-dimensional movement, lowering capture difficulty and making the overall project deployment more practical,” a staff member from a private rocket company told Interface News.

In addition, net recovery eliminates deadweight structures such as landing legs. The saved mass can be converted into redundancy for airframe protection and structural strength, effectively improving payload capacity. Reuse efficiency will also be higher afterward, and there is no need to inspect landing legs, which helps increase launch frequency.

Image source: Official account video of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

“Although the offshore net recovery方案 requires more preparation in the early stage, it exchanges for improved reliability and payload capacity. Therefore, it is more suitable for missions with larger payloads and higher safety requirements,” the above industry insider told Interface News.

It is worth noting that the design方案 and technical standards of the Long March 10 Beta’s first stage are highly aligned with the future crewed moon-landing rocket: YF-100K is the same engine used on the moon-landing rocket, and the 5-meter diameter is also the core-stage dimension of the moon-landing rocket.

Rocket recovery technology is a core step in enabling rocket reuse.

Depending on the recovery site, rocket recovery can be divided into land recovery and offshore platform recovery.

The above staff member from the private rocket company told Interface News that compared with land recovery, offshore platform recovery offers more maneuverability and flexibility for landing. Offshore barges can be flexibly deployed according to the specific needs of each mission. In addition, it is safer—if an accident occurs, it will not threaten personnel safety.

In terms of implementation methods, worldwide rocket recovery mainly falls into three categories: vertical takeoff and landing, parachute recovery, and horizontal takeoff and landing.

Among them, vertical takeoff and landing is currently the mainstream approach and has evolved into various technical routes.

Note: Both the “chopstick clamp” and the net system are suitable for larger rockets. The net system’s main advantages are reliability and increased payload capacity. Illustration: Li Xiang

The best-known method is landing-leg-based vertical recovery, represented by the US SpaceX Falcon 9. The rocket’s stage is decelerated by engine reverse thrust; landing legs are deployed at the predetermined landing site to enable a vertical touchdown. This technology has been thoroughly validated through multiple commercial launches. Zhuque-3, developed by China’s Blue Arrow Aerospace, also uses the same recovery scheme.

Currently, the Falcon 9 rocket has completed more than 600 landings, and a single booster has completed up to 36 flights. This scheme has relatively low requirements on landing sites, making it convenient for flexible deployment.

Landing-leg-based vertical recovery has high landing accuracy and strong recoverability control, but landing legs increase structural mass and require sacrificing some payload efficiency.

Another scheme is tower capture technology—represented by SpaceX Starship’s “chopstick clamp” technology. A giant mechanical arm shaped like “chopsticks” is mounted on the launch tower, designed to “catch” the returning rocket booster midair, aiming to eliminate the weight of landing legs and improve payload efficiency. However, it imposes extremely high requirements for hover precision and the response speed of the tower servo mechanisms.

On October 13, 2024, during the fifth test flight of Starship, SpaceX successfully completed the first “chopstick clamp” booster recovery.

In China, the first large and medium stainless-steel liquid rocket prototype “Yuanzhi-1” (元行者一号) under development by Qianyuan Technology plans to use offshore capture “chopstick clamp” recovery. However, its path is not a leap directly to the final form; it will first conduct offshore splashdown recovery, master various capabilities, and then iterate toward offshore platform capture recovery.

On December 3 last year, China’s private reusable rocket Zhuque-3 Yao-1 (朱雀三号遥一) launch vehicle lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone and completed the flight mission according to procedure. The rocket’s second stage entered the planned orbit, and during the recovery of the first stage an abnormal burn occurred, preventing a soft landing on the recovery landing pad.

Per plan, the Zhuque-3 reusable Yao-2 launch vehicle will be launched this year. On June 29, the Zhuque-3 Yao-2 launch vehicle completed a static ignition test, with all systems working normally, laying the foundation for subsequent flight missions.

If Zhuque-3 Yao-2’s reusable rocket also successfully validates recoverable technology, China will become the world’s first country to master two rocket recovery technology routes—offshore net-based recovery represented by the Long March 10 Beta and vertical leg-based recovery represented by Zhuque-3. The two routes will form differentiated and complementary capabilities.

China’s determination to tackle reusable rocket technology stems from the fundamental constraint of commercial spaceflight: launch costs, payload capacity (transport capability), and launch frequency.

Reusable technology’s significance for reducing launch costs is enormous. The above industry insider said that the cost accounting for reusable rocket technology is relatively clear. Even considering repair and maintenance costs, rocket reuse achieving fewer than five times already shows a clear advantage in costs. As the number of reuses increases—for example, reaching more than 10 times—the per-launch cost is expected to decrease by about 80%.

National teams represented by the Long March 10 Beta, Long March 12 Alpha, and others will also profoundly affect the pricing logic across the entire commercial launch market.

The above industry insider believes that although national teams have not yet published specific commercial quotations, their strong technical capabilities and large-scale production capacity will effectively define the market’s upper price limit, objectively squeezing existing prices and accelerating the decline in launch costs.

At present, the Tiankian Constellation phase III final plan includes more than 15k satellites, and the GW constellation plan is about 13k. Together, the two constellations require launching about 28k satellites. Assuming 20 satellites per rocket, that still requires about 1,400 launch missions.

The payload capacity release brought by recoverable technology will break the dilemma of “satellites waiting for rockets,” providing a solid payload capacity guarantee for large-scale constellation networking for low-Earth-orbit constellations at the tens of thousands scale such as Starlink and Tiankian.

The above industry insider believes that in this contest around cost and frequency, companies that first master rocket reuse technology will gain the advantage of “defining the rules.” For example, by deeply binding satellite manufacturers and guiding the design of the next generation of satellites to proactively adapt to rocket payload capacity, thereby building commercial barriers.

If the Long March 10 Beta and Zhuque-3 can complete core recovery technology validations in succession, China’s recoverable rockets could achieve “flight-style” and routine operations, accelerating the transition from one-time launches to a new stage of lower cost, higher frequency, and reuse, thereby providing a solid foundation for building satellite internet and deep space exploration, and promoting steady development of China’s domestic commercial space industry.

This article source: Interface News

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