Riyaz ul Khaliq
10 July 2026•Update: 10 July 2026
China successfully recovered a used rocket after a sea launch on Friday, state media reported.
The indigenously built Long March-10B carrier rocket lifted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern Hainan province, achieving its "first controlled recovery of a carrier rocket's first stage," Xinhua News reported.
The 70-meter (230-foot) tall, 5-meter-wide rocket was launched at around 12.15 pm local time (0415GMT). Soon afterward, the rocket's first stage returned vertically to a sea-based platform.
It took the rocket about two and a half minutes to reach the separation point, where its first- and second-stage boosters separated and the first-stage engines cut off temporarily, according to China Daily.
"A single liquid oxygen-methane engine on the second stage then ignited, propelling the payload-carrying upper stage toward its target orbit. The stage later deployed a satellite into its preset orbit hundreds of kilometers above Earth," it added.
"This marks China's first successful implementation of controlled recovery of a launch vehicle's first stage, as well as the world's first net-based recovery of a launch vehicle," according to the Beijing-based Global Times newspaper.
China is the second country after the US to possess reliable reusable rocket technology.
