A Historic Day for Commercial Spaceflight: Sector Soars, Six Satellite ETFs Hit Limit-Up

Today marks a historic moment for the commercial space sector.

On July 10th, the Long March 10B carrier rocket was launched from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. Following stage separation, the first stage executed a controlled, vertical return and was successfully recovered on an offshore platform. This achievement represents China's first successful controlled recovery of a launch vehicle's first stage and the world's first net-based recovery of a carrier rocket.

The news triggered a surge in the commercial space concept sector, with numerous related stocks hitting their daily limit-up.

Additionally, six major satellite-themed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) all surged to their daily limit-up during the trading session.

Analysts at Yongying Fund noted that insufficient launch capacity and high launch costs have been the core constraints on satellite deployment numbers. This successful recovery marks a substantial breakthrough in this critical bottleneck, serving as the most significant catalyst yet for the commercial space industry.

One analyst highlighted that the Long March 10B did not replicate SpaceX's leg-based vertical landing approach. Instead, it pioneered a global first with its "offshore net-based recovery" system. By eliminating the heavy landing legs from the first stage to reduce deadweight, the system uses a flexible capture net on the recovery vessel to secure the stage upon landing. This innovation simplifies the rocket's structure while lowering the demands on engine thrust modulation and landing precision. In its recovered configuration, the Long March 10B boasts a low Earth orbit payload capacity of no less than 16 tons, matching the performance benchmarks of the Falcon 9, with unit launch costs expected to drop by over 40%. This demonstrates a rapid catch-up to the global benchmark through an independently innovated technical path and lower engineering costs. According to the development team's plan, the first stage's reusability flight test could be completed before the end of the year. The Zhuque-3 Yao-2 mission is also poised for launch, indicating that both state-backed and private rocket companies are driving progress, entering a period of intensive validation and rapid iteration for reusable technology.