China successfully tests sea-based rocket booster recovery system
The test marked China’s first successful orbital-class booster recovery and could help validate reusable rocket technology for lunar missions, officials said.
- On Friday, China successfully tested an experimental rocket retrieval system, recovering a Long March 10B booster on a sea platform six minutes after liftoff from Hainan, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
- China has spent nearly a decade developing reusable rocket technologies to lower launch costs for satellite constellations, following failed recovery attempts by Private Chinese firms and state-owned firms last year.
- Unlike SpaceX's Falcon 9, which lands on deployable legs, the Long March uses 'landing hooks' to catch a net on a sea platform, recovering the engine-packed booster viewed as the most valuable rocket component.
- Shares in Chinese aerospace firms China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications jumped following the test, while China plans to reuse the recovered booster for another launch by year's end.
- As part of the Long March 10 family developed for crewed lunar missions before 2030, this successful test provides critical data to validate technologies relevant to the broader Chinese lunar programme.
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102 Articles
China Achieves Historic Rocket Breakthrough With First Successful Booster Recovery
China has reached a major milestone in its space program by successfully carrying out the country's first controlled recovery of the first stage of a Long March-10B launch vehicle. The achievement represents an important advance in China's efforts to develop reusable rocket technology. Long March-10B Completes Successful Maiden Flight The Long March-10B lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, southern China, on its mai…
China makes space program breakthrough
The partially recoverable Long March 10B has taken its maiden flight China has successfully recovered the first stage of one of its space rockets for the first time, in a major technological milestone. The test was conducted on Friday during the maiden flight of the two-stage Long March 10B rocket, which launched from the Hainan...
The Long March 10B was captured on a maritime platform and China plans to reuse it before the end of the year
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