China’s CASC Lands Long March-10B Booster Using World-First Net Recovery

For a decade, the benchmarks for returning rockets to Earth were set almost exclusively by private American billionaires. But on July 10, China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) successfully recovered the first-stage booster of its Long March-10B rocket, proving that the global space race is no longer a one-man show.

The Long March-10B and the World’s First Net Recovery

China didn’t just copy the American playbook; it introduced a new mechanical approach. While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 uses landing legs to touch down on floating platforms, the Long March-10B employed a specialized net strung across a large frame on a recovery ship to capture the booster mid-air.

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The sequence was precise. Lifting off from the Hainan commercial space launch site at 12:15 p.m. on July 10, the rocket separated its first and second stages. Roughly six minutes later, the first stage executed a vertical return and was captured by an offshore recovery platform. This net-based recovery is a world first, marking a shift in how nations approach the problem of orbital hardware retrieval.

CASC intends to move beyond the demonstration phase quickly. The company stated it will attempt to reuse the booster by the end of 2026. The Long March-10B is designed to carry a payload capacity comparable to the Falcon 9, SpaceX’s primary workhorse.

Comparing the Reusable Rocket Elite

China now enters an elite club that has seen varying degrees of success and volatility over the last 11 years. The timeline shows a clear progression from SpaceX’s early lead to a more crowded field of competitors.

Organization	Key Milestone	Method/Detail
SpaceX	First booster landing in 2015	Landing legs; recently used “chopstick” arms for Starship Super Heavy in 2024
Blue Origin	Orbital landing in November 2025	Ocean platform landing; experienced a launchpad explosion in May 2026
CASC (China)	First orbital recovery July 10, 2026	World-first net-based recovery on a sea barge

While SpaceX continues to break annual launch records to support its Starlink network and NASA contracts, other U.S. firms are still in the development phase. Rocket Lab is working on the Neutron rocket, and Stoke Space is developing a fully reusable vehicle it hopes to test this year.

Soft Power and the Cost of Launch

The strategic implications of this breakthrough extend far beyond engineering. Reusability is the primary lever for driving down the cost of access to space. According to Victoria Samson, chief director for Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, this is a huge game changer.

“When China figures out how to reuse them, that is going to drop the launch of cost for them tremendously and then they could use it as part of their soft power outreach to launch things for potential allies very cheaply.”

Victoria Samson, Secure World Foundation

Because national security rules generally split the rocket market between the U.S./Europe and Russia/China, CASC won’t likely compete for the same customers as SpaceX. However, a reusable fleet allows China to build satellite communications networks and orbital data centers that could challenge Starlink’s dominance in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

The Private Ambition vs. Government Mandate

The shift toward private-sector dominance is a central theme of current American space strategy. A recent CNN documentary, Eclipsing Power: Musk, Bezos, and the New Space Race, examines how the wealth and ambition of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have transformed space exploration from a government-led endeavor into a private race.

NASA now relies heavily on these partnerships to fulfill its goals. SpaceX is developing the Human Landing System for the moon, while Blue Origin is working on a similar system and a private space station called Orbital Reef to replace the ISS. Other firms, such as Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space, are contributing probes for the lunar surface and exploration concepts for Mars.

This reliance creates a unique political vulnerability. Some critics argue that targeting the wealth of these entrepreneurs could jeopardize the U.S. space program. Specifically, proposals for a national wealth tax—such as one recently suggested by California Governor Gavin Newsom—could cripple public-private partnerships and potentially hand the moon to China if the Artemis program is inhibited.

The stakes are not just political, but existential for American standing in the world. If China becomes the primary entity exploring and developing the moon, the result could be catastrophic for U.S. leadership in space.

As China moves toward full reusability by the end of 2026, the U.S. is betting on the success of the larger Starship rocket. While the last launch attempt had mixed results, SpaceX is expected to make another attempt this month following a successful static fire test of its massive booster.