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Watch China Land a Reusable Rocket for the First Time
Business Insider • • world
Key Points:
- China successfully landed the booster stage of its Long March-10B reusable rocket, marking the first time it has launched and partially returned a reusable orbital rocket safely to Earth.
- This achievement places China's Aerospace Science and Technology Corp alongside SpaceX and Blue Origin as the only organizations to have successfully landed a rocket booster, signaling a major advance in reusable launch capabilities.
- China's Long March booster was recovered using a novel "net-based recovery" method, a world first, which could help reduce launch costs by enabling rocket reuse.
- Despite progress, China's Long March rocket still lags behind SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Starship in payload capacity and number of launches, while China’s satellite internet ambitions remain far behind SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
- Elon Musk acknowledged China’s advancements in reusable rockets but emphasized that SpaceX’s Starship remains in a league of its own in terms of technology and capability.
