China's Long March 10B Completes First Stage Recovery, Marking Country's First Reusable Launch Milestone

China's Long March rocket family has achieved its first successful controlled recovery of a launch vehicle's first stage, with the Long March 10B carrier rocket completing its maiden flight and recovery on July 10. The mission also marked the world's first net-based recovery of a launch vehicle, making the Long March 10B China's first reusable launch vehicle to successfully complete a recovery mission.

The achievement comes as China advances from expendable vehicles toward reusable designs, part of what experts describe as an ongoing effort to meet more demanding space goals. The year 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, the military trek from 1934 to 1936, from which the rocket family takes its name.

On July 10, the Long March 10B lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch site, placing its satellite payload into the designated orbit. Approximately six minutes after separation of the first and second stages, the first stage made a controlled vertical descent and was recovered through a net-based capture system on an offshore recovery platform located more than 300 kilometers from the launch site. Earlier, on June 1, a Long March 12B made its maiden flight from a commercial launch pad in the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Pilot Zone, delivering the 10th constellation of Qianfan satellites into orbit. The reusable Long March 12B has a single core stage about four meters in diameter and can carry out missions to different orbits, with development emphasizing performance, safety, efficiency and lower costs.

The Long March family reached its 671st launch on October 10, when a Long March 12 placed the 27th batch of low-Earth orbit internet satellites into orbit. The first launch came on April 24, 1970, when a Long March 1 carried Dongfanghong-1, China's first artificial satellite, into space. Long Lehao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and launch vehicle expert at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, traced the name to a proposal by pioneering Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen on May 31, 1966. Since the first launch, the family has progressed from carrying one satellite at a time to deploying 41 in a single mission.

Wang Yanan, editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said decades of development have made the rocket program itself a technological Long March spanning generations, supporting crewed missions, launching BeiDou navigation satellites, lunar and Mars exploration, and space station construction. Kang Guohua, a senior member of the Chinese Society of Astronautics and professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that just as the Red Army fought to break through encirclement, China's space program has repeatedly had to find a way through external restrictions, citing BeiDou and the space station as examples of breakthroughs achieved amid outside competition and technological barriers.

Wang said future Long March versions will need to be larger and more capable, supporting more frequent launches, heavier payloads and a more sustainable launch program. He drew a parallel with the historical Long March, noting that reaching northern Shaanxi did not mark the end of the revolution, and the rocket family's achievements are likewise milestones along a continuing journey. China's expanding plans in space require developing reusable, heavier and more advanced models. "Reaching orbit is only stage one in humanity's exploration of space," Wang said, adding that the journey will continue to other planets and deeper.