China Rocket Landing
China marked a reusable rocket breakthrough with a first-stage launch and recovery test.
July 12, 2026 · Updated Jul 10, 5:41pm ET
Scientific AmericanChina’s Long March 10B rocket successfully launches—and lands—in a global spaceflight milestone
ARS TechnicaChina recovered its first reusable rocket and showed a new way to do it
IFL ScienceState Contractor Reports First Successful Launch And Recovery Of A Chinese Reusable Rocket
TechCrunchChina is catching up to Elon Musk's reusable rockets
ABC NewsChina takes a page from SpaceX and recaptures the first stage of a rocket to reuse it
BBC NewsChina successfully lands reusable rocket, state media says
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What happened
China’s state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology CorporationChina Aerospace Science and Technology CorporationChinese state-owned defense company launched a Long March 10B rocket from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan on Friday and recovered its first stage on a floating platform in the South China Sea. The rocket lifted off at 12:15 local time (04:15 GMT) and carried a payload to low Earth orbit. The recovery was China’s first landing of a reusable orbital-class booster after launch. The demonstration follows the model used by SpaceX to reuse first-stage boosters.
