It’s history: China recovers the first stage of an orbital launch vehicle, just like SpaceX

In its reusable configuration, it will be capable of carrying at least 16 tonnes into low Earth orbit, enough to support the full deployment of the two mega-constellations for connectivity that Beijing is building, Guowang and Qianfan, as well as resupply missions to the national space station, Tiangong (‘Heavenly Palace’).

The significance of this maiden flight extends beyond the launch schedule: every flight of the Long March 10 family – which also includes the variant designed for trans-lunar missions – provides flight and control data that will also be useful for the mission that is expected to take two taikonauts to the lunar surface by 2030.

The key point, however, is another, and it is the one that has sent Chinese aerospace shares soaring on the stock market, from China Spacesat to China Satellite Communications: until this morning, the ability to recover a first-stage orbital booster following re-entry into the atmosphere was held by just two companies in the world, both US-based: SpaceX had demonstrated this for the first time in December 2015 with a Falcon 9, pioneering a reusability model that now enables it to launch more frequently than anyone else, with boosters reused dozens of times. Blue Origin had replicated this feat just eight months ago, in November 2025, with the first successful landing of the New Glenn.

China is now joining that very select group, albeit using a different technique — net capture rather than landing on retractable legs — and with room for further development that remains to be demonstrated in forthcoming flights. Some Chinese media outlets have explicitly referred to a “SpaceX moment” for the Chinese aerospace industry; others have spoken of entering a “phase of collective sprint” towards regular, low-cost launches.

Even setting aside the rhetoric, the strategic significance remains clear: the reduction in launch costs will no longer be an exclusively American advantage, and this will have an impact on orbital dominance – a domain that is increasingly intertwined with military, surveillance and power-projection capabilities. This is the very arena in which dual-use mega-constellations, early-warning satellites and rapid, repeatable access to space in the event of a crisis are pitted against one another.

It should also be noted that this morning’s launch is not an isolated initiative: it is the latest stage in a race that, in China, involves not only state-owned giants but also a swarm of private companies that have emerged over the last ten years in the wake of SpaceX’s success. LandSpace, which in 2023 had already launched the world’s first methane-powered rocket into orbit, has been working since 2024 on vertical take-off and landing tests for its Zhuque-3 and will shortly be attempting a new recovery manoeuvre following December’s failure. Space Pioneer is developing the Tianlong-3, designed to compete directly with the Falcon 9. iSpace is continuing the development of its Hyperbola-3. Galactic Energy and Cas Space – the latter a spin-off from the Chinese Academy of Sciences – are conducting their own ‘hop tests’ involving ascent and descent. Deep Blue Aerospace is working on the Nebula-1, with the stated ambition of offering suborbital tourist flights in the future.

Alongside these start-ups, on the state side, are the aforementioned Sast and now Calt/Chinarocket. According to the Wall Street Journal, at least six reusable rockets designed by private Chinese companies were expected to make their debut by the end of 2025: even more telling than any official statement, this flurry of activity illustrates just how much Beijing regards reusability as an indispensable component of its ‘space fortress’.

It remains to be seen whether the Chinese achievement is an isolated incident or the start of a series: CCTV has already announced that the stage recovered on 10 July will be used for a new launch by the end of the year – the real litmus test for determining whether reusability is operational and not merely demonstrative. Meanwhile, the question on the minds of engineers and analysts is no longer whether China will manage to catch up with the United States in this field, but how quickly it will do so. And if, by the time it does, the target to be pursued will already have been moved further ahead by Starship, the first fully reusable space launch system. SpaceX is improving it at a rapid pace, but has not yet achieved a successful orbital flight.