How Does China's Sea-Based Reusable Rocket Booster Recovery System Work?

How Does China's Sea-Based Reusable Rocket Booster Recovery System Work?

China has recovered the first stage of a Long March-10B carrier rocket using a unique net system at sea—a world first for reusable rocket technology. This eliminates the need for landing legs, saving weight and fuel for a larger rocket payload capacity.

China succeeded in recovering part of its Long March 10B reusable rocket on its maiden launch on Friday, July 10, 2026, marking China's first successful controlled recovery of a carrier rocket's first stage and representing a major breakthrough in the country's reusable rocket technology. This makes China the second country after the United States to have demonstrated such a capability.

The Long March 10B has a low Earth orbit (LEO) payload capacity of 16 tonnes in reusable mode, offering a highly cost-effective solution for deploying large commercial satellites and LEO Internet constellations.

The Long March-10B carrier rocket was launched at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province. After the separation of the rocket's first and second stages, the first stage returned and was successfully captured on a seaborne platform via a net-capture system. Both the launch and the first-stage recovery were successfully completed.

The platform, serving as a critical piece of infrastructure for the country's reusable rocket launch, is named "Linghangzhe" or Pathfinder. It has been certified by the China Classification Society, making it the first sea-based rocket recovery platform in the country to receive the required class and statutory certifications, according to Xu Xuelei, an engineer at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

"First, it (the platform) is equipped with a remote-controlled dynamic positioning system, which allows the vessel to navigate to a specific location by inputting coordinates from up to 10 to 20 kilometers away. Second, the tower structure stands 67 meters high and has a self-weight of 3,500 tonnes. When combined with its internal equipment, the total weight reaches 5,400 tonnes. The entire tower structure is supported by four large bearing units connected to the ship, posing a significant challenge to the overall design of the vessel," he said.

During an interview with China Central Television, Xu also gave a detailed introduction to the process of recovering a rocket on the offshore platform.

"First, the vessel is navigated to the designated recovery area. Then, after quality inspection, all related personnel will evacuate because it’s pretty dangerous throughout the recovery process, therefore, it must be unoccupied. Next, a rocket launches from the launch pad. After liftoff, its first and second stages separate, followed by their descent. At each corner of our tower structure, we have a set of laser radars to measure in real time the position and attitude of a descending rocket, controlling the cables to absorb both the rocket's kinetic energy and the potential energy generated during its fall. Upon the completion of this step, the rocket comes to a relative standstill, suspended at the center of the net. The entire process is completely unmanned, fully automated," Xu explained.

Developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the Long March-10B is a large, two-stage liquid-fueled carrier rocket featuring a 5-meter diameter core. Standing approximately 63 meters tall with a takeoff thrust of 890 tons, the rocket utilizes liquid oxygen and kerosene for its first stage and liquid oxygen and methane for its second.

The July 10 mission successfully validated several core technologies, including combined configuration optimization, methane autogenous pressurization, and propellant management using baffled tanks. Notably, it demonstrated critical first-stage reuse technologies such as multiple engine restarts, high-altitude ignition, adaptability to complex aerothermal environments, high-precision navigation and control, and a sea-based net-capture recovery system.

This mission was the first for the Long March 10B vehicle, the first full flight of the Long March 10 series, and the 657th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 48th launch from China in 2026.

Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute
Date: July 10, 2026

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