China Pulls Off Historic Orbital Rocket Sea Net Landing To Challenge SpaceX

At 12:15 p.m. local time from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, the 207-foot (63-meter) tall, two-stage rocket lifted off, sending its satellite payload into a designated low-Earth orbit. At t-plus six minutes, the kerosene and liquid oxygen-fueled first stage separated from the upper stage. Here, the booster successfully performed a controlled, vertical descent, and navigated directly toward a specialized sea-based recovery platform.

Until now, Western firms (we're looking at you, SpaceX and Blue Origin) have been the only entities capable of reliably landing orbital-class boosters. With Long March 10B, China has pretty much closed that gap. In the long term, the rocket, which boasts a payload capacity of at least 16 metric tons, will drastically slash Beijing’s launch expenses. Short term-wise, the sea landing has already triggered an immediate surge in Chinese space firms hitting their daily trading limits, with the likes of China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications rising by 10% each.

The Long March breakthrough comes amidst a hyper-competitive global space race. We don't think the launch will erase the lead held by U.S. reusable systems, but the gap is narrowing fast. China’s state program and an emerging ecosystem of domestic private entities, such as CAS Space and Galactic Energy, are aggressively accelerating their reusable programs to match SpaceX’s feverish operational tempo. CASC officials have already announced plans to clean, inspect, and refly the same Long March 10B booster before the end of the year.