A Chinese company demonstrated controlled recovery of a rocket's bottom portion, which is critical in helping to drive down launch costs
SpaceX has grown to dominate the rocket-launch industry with its partially reusable vehicles. It wants Starship, its next rocket, to be fully reusable.
China just took a major step toward proving that it can compete with SpaceX and that company's dominant rocket-launch capabilities.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. on Friday said it had successfully launched its Long March 10B rocket and recovered the vehicle's first stage using a "net capture system." It was China's first-ever controlled recovery of the bottom portion of a rocket, a crucial step toward CASC eventually making its vehicles reusable.
In a statement, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it a "major leap toward reusable launch capabilities." It's also the "world's first network-based recovery of a launch vehicle," according to the company.
SpaceX $(SPCX)$ changed the industry when it unlocked partial reusability nearly a decade ago, launching its first reused booster for a Falcon 9 rocket in March 2017. Since then, it has launched hundreds of missions using what it calls "flight proven" boosters, which have helped it dramatically ramp up its launch cadence and cut down on costs.
With Starship - a massive rocket meant to be completely reusable that the company has already spent more than $15 billion developing - SpaceX plans to ramp up its ambitions and launch hundreds of thousands of satellites into orbit. Currently, it has about 10,800 satellites in orbit.
SpaceX shares are down about 3% on Friday morning.
Few competitors have been able to unlock reusability for their own rockets. Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon's (AMZN) Jeff Bezos and is seeking to raise outside cash for the first time, has made its New Glenn orbital rocket partially reusable. Others, such as Rocket Lab (RKLB) and some European companies, have made parts of their rockets reusable or tested reusable systems.
Chinese companies have launched satellites into orbit using single-use rockets, which can be costly and contribute to the increasing amount of potentially hazardous space junk. At the end of 2025, China had more than 1,353 satellites in orbit, far fewer than SpaceX's constellation alone, according to the U.S. Space Force.
The Long March rocket can deliver payloads of 16 metric tons to low-Earth orbit, according to CASC, putting it in the same weight class as SpaceX's Falcon 9 workhorse. Friday's mission verified that CASC's core technologies work, the company said. It expects the first stage of the Long March rocket to be reused for flight by the end of the year.
Prior attempts by China to match SpaceX have failed. The private firm Landspace tested its Zhuque-3 rocket last December, which launched successfully, but its first stage lost control on its return to the launchpad. CASC's Long March 12A rocket was tested last December but failed to properly land, according to Space News.
To truly compete with SpaceX, China will need to refine its technology and ensure that its breakthrough launch is backed up by future successes.
"Make no mistake this is a big step forward for China, but it doesn't necessarily imply China is ready to compete with SpaceX just yet," Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's defense strategy program, noted on X.
-William Gavin
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Comments