Historic Milestone Achieved: Long March 10B's Maiden Flight Succeeds, Marking China's First Controlled Rocket Stage Recovery

A significant breakthrough in China's space program has been achieved.

On July 10, 2026, at 12:15 PM, the Long March 10B carrier rocket successfully lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, delivering its satellite payload into the intended orbit.

Approximately six minutes after stage separation, the rocket's first stage executed a controlled vertical return and was successfully recovered on a sea-based platform using a net capture system, marking a complete success for both the launch and recovery mission.

This mission represents China's first successful controlled recovery of a carrier rocket's first stage and is also the world's first net-based recovery of a launch vehicle, signifying a historic breakthrough in reusable rocket technology for the nation.

This achievement lays a solid foundation for accelerating the enhancement of China's space access capabilities.

The Long March 10B has become China's first reusable launch vehicle model to successfully demonstrate stage recovery.

Long March 10B was developed under the primary responsibility of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

It is a large two-stage liquid-propellant rocket with a 5-meter diameter.

The first stage, which uses liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants, retains the configuration of the Long March 10A's first stage.

The second stage utilizes liquid oxygen and methane propellants.

The rocket has a total liftoff thrust of approximately 890 tons, a liftoff mass of about 760 tons, and a total length of roughly 63 meters for this inaugural flight.

In its reusable configuration, it offers a low Earth orbit payload capacity of up to 16 tons, catering to various mission needs such as deploying low-orbit satellite internet constellations and launching large commercial satellites.

This reusability is expected to significantly reduce launch costs, offering advantages in high payload capacity and cost-effectiveness.

This mission follows the low-altitude demonstration flight and safe sea splashdown of the Long March 10 series, further validating reusable rocket recovery technology.

The successful maiden flight has validated a suite of core and critical technologies, including integrated configuration optimization design, large-thrust thrust structure technology, and methane self-pressurization technology.

Specifically, it successfully demonstrated key reusable first-stage technologies such as propellant management based on baffled tanks, multiple engine restarts and high-altitude ignition, adaptability to complex thermal-mechanical environments, high-precision navigation and control, and net capture recovery on a maritime platform.

Moving forward, the Long March 10B development team will continue to optimize the rocket's performance and accelerate the iterative upgrades of reusable rocket technology.

A reused flight of the first stage is anticipated before the end of this year.

This mission was the 657th launch of the Long March rocket series.

In afternoon trading on July 10th, stocks related to the commercial space sector surged.

Shares of Youji Co., Ltd. (Beijing Stock Exchange) hit the "30cm" daily limit up, while Hailanxin and Tongyizhong surged by the "20CM" limit.

Large-cap stocks like China Satellite Communications Co., Ltd. (SH: 601698) and China Spacesat Co., Ltd. (SH: 600118) also hit the limit up swiftly, with multiple commercial space stocks reaching their daily涨停 limit.