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China successfully tests sea-based rocket booster recovery system
The test marks China’s first orbital-class booster recovery and could lower launch costs for commercial satellite 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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168 Articles
168 Articles
China announced a significant step in reusable rocket technology after successfully launching its new generation Long March-10B carrier rocket. The launch successfully delivered the payload into space, and the detached section landed as planned on a sea platform.
·Istanbul, Türkiye
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During the first launch of the Long March 10B, the country successfully returned the first stage after the cargo had been placed in orbit using a sea-based platform.
·Kyiv, Ukraine
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources168
Leaning Left39Leaning Right31Center53Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Center
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources are Center
43% Center
L 32%
C 43%
R 25%
Factuality
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