China Achieves First Controlled Recovery of Rocket Booster — Space Agency
In this May 5, 2020, file photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China’s new large carrier rocket Long March 5B blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan Province. An experimental version of China’s latest-generation crewed shape ship is operating normally, the government says, despite an apparent malfunction aboard a cargo return capsule.
BEIJING (Sputnik) — China successfully launched the Changzheng-10B (Long March-10B) carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island on Friday, marking the first controlled recovery of a rocket booster on a marine platform, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has said. «The launch of the Changzheng-10B took place on July 10, 2026, at 12:15 p.m. [04:50 GMT] from the commercial spaceport on Hainan Island,» the statement read. Approximately six minutes after the separation of the first and second stages, the first stage was successfully returned to a marine platform in a vertical position, the corporation added. «This marks China’s first successful controlled recovery of a carrier rocket’s first stage,» CASC said. In February of this year, China successfully tested a prototype of the Changzheng-10 carrier rocket, which is designed to carry out a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030. Shortly after liftoff from Wenchang, the first stage separated as planned and made a controlled splashdown in a designated area of the South China Sea, marking China’s first mission to recover a rocket booster at sea.
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