China Long March 10B Reusable Medium-lift Rocket Test: Pre-launch in Hainan

China Long March 10B Reusable Medium-lift Rocket Test: Pre-launch in Hainan

A China Long March 10B rocket is being prepared for launch and for its first test flight at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan. The Long March 10 rocket series is China’s next-generation launch vehicle, specifically engineered to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. Long March 10B is a cargo variant. It will attempt to recover its first stage booster with a sea-based net system. The Long March 10B launch will be the first orbital mission for the series, and is considered a crucial early orbital flight test for the program.

The first stage of the Long March 10B rocket, like its 10A human-rated variant, will be recoverable via a "wire recovery apparatus" located on a recovery vessel after launch. The first-stage of the rocket is equipped with hooks that will catch the wire-network on the recovery ship. The tensioned wires are carried by rail-mounted dollies that automatically position themselves to optimize the likelihood that the rocket will successfully "catch" the wires.

The Long March 10B is an under-development, two-stage, medium-lift partially reusable 5.0-meter-diameter launch vehicle with a first-stage powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen and a second-stage powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen. It is the third in the Long March 10 series of rockets and is derived using technologies developed for the Long March 10A. It will be operated by Chinarocket Co, Ltd., the commercial arm of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)—the key rocket-making institute of State-owned space contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

On February 11, 2026, China achieved an important milestone with the first low-altitude flight test of a prototype Long March 10A rocket at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan.

Image Credit: China National Space Administration (CNSA)
Dates: April 8-July 9, 2026

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