China has taken a giant leap in space technology, landing its Long March 10B booster for the first time. According to state media, the rocket lifted off from Hainan’s coast at 12:15 local time, and six minutes later its booster returned to Earth, landing safely on a floating platform.
The move signals that China might soon compete with the United States in reusable launch vehicles, a field pioneered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. Reusability cuts the cost of satellite launches dramatically, reducing the need for disposable stages.
SpaceX first landed a Falcon 9 booster in December 2015, and Blue Origin followed with the New Glenn in November 2025. Prices for delivering payloads to low‑Earth orbit (LEO) have fallen accordingly. China’s Long March 10B can carry up to 16 metric‑tons to LEO, a capacity comparable to Falcon 9.
Unlike SpaceX’s autonomous landing, the Long March 10B uses “landing hooks” that snag a net attached to a floating platform, allowing for controlled descent without a ground pad.
The news spurred a sharp rise in Chinese space‑sector stocks, with China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications each jumping 10 %. The limits on gains are dictated by China’s financial regulations.
