On July 10, China successfully demonstrated its reusable rocket landing capability. The Long March (LM)-10B mission, capable of placing 16 tonnes into low earth orbit, was launched from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site in Hainan. After the launch, in about six minutes of liftoff, LM-10B’s booster (the first stage of the rocket) separated from its upper stage and executed a controlled descent. Finally, the booster landed on a floating sea platform, where it was captured by a net.Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.The booster’s successful recovery was the result of several years of reusable launch vehicle research. Before China, only SpaceX and Blue Origin had successfully demonstrated reusable rocket recovery. With LM-10B’s successful recovery, China has become the first state actor in the world to possess this ability.The development of reusable launch systems has been happening in the United States since 2010 and it was SpaceX which successfully operationalised this technology around 2015-2017. Blue Origin’s New Glenn demonstrated similar capability in November 2025. Till date, SpaceX has successfully completed around 650 recoveries of its first-stage Falcon rocket boosters.The first stage of a satellite launch vehicle is its most powerful section. It provides the massive initial thrust needed to lift the vehicle off the launch pad (against Earth’s gravity), and propel the rocket through the thickest parts of the lower atmosphere. This stage is the most expensive of the entire rocket system. It normally amounts to 60% to 75% of the total rocket’s manufacturing cost (mostly the cost factor varies based on the nature of the mission).The recovery of the rocket’s first stage back to earth involves a process where, after the first stage’s separation, it reorients itself using its thrusters and re-enters the atmosphere under aerodynamic control and fires its engines to slow its descent. During atmospheric re-entry, the booster deploys grid fins, which provide stability, steer the vehicle and guide it along a controlled descent for precise landing.The most critical challenge here involves specific thrust management during the final landing phase. During the return phase, the booster is nearly empty and therefore extremely light. As a result, precise thrust management is crucial to prevent either rebound caused by excessive thrust or a hard landing resulting from insufficient deceleration. Successful recovery essentially depends on achieving a precisely controlled touchdown.There is a difference between the SpaceX recovery technique and the Chinese recovery technique. In the case of SpaceX, the booster lands on a platform using landing legs or mechanical ‘chopstick’ arms. On the other hand, China’s LM-10B mission demonstrated that their technique involves catching the booster with a net using landing hooks and avoiding having it land on legs.LM-10B has been developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which is the country’s leading state-owned rocket manufacturer involved in designing and developing launch vehicles for commercial missions.While developing the technology, China has avoided the SpaceX approach, which undertakes an autonomous landing on a ground pad or drone ship (missions carried out by the Falcon-9 rockets). As mentioned above, LM-10B is designed to be caught by four landing hooks that engage with a net suspended from an offshore platform.According to CALT, this net-based recovery system eliminates the need for heavy landing legs, simplifying the rocket’s onboard structure, reducing its mass and increasing payload capacity. The company also argues that a net can tolerate greater landing-point deviations than a conventional landing pad, as the coordinated capture system effectively expands the recovery window.Interestingly, immediately after the Chinese test, Japan’s space agency JAXA is known to have tested a prototype reusable rocket. The prototype was launched on July 11 from JAXA’s test site in Akita. It was a very preliminary test, with the rocket reaching an altitude of about ten metres before landing after a 40-second flight. JAXA said it will analyse the flight data but was confident the test had yielded valuable results.With the H3, Japan’s flagship rocket, designed for only a single flight, the country has been investing in reusable launch technology to lower costs and increase the frequency of satellite launches.Earlier, in June 2025, Honda R&D, a subsidiary of Honda Motor, had successfully launched and landed an experimental reusable rocket that reached an altitude of nearly 300 metres, becoming the first Japanese private company to achieve the milestone. Honda aims to conduct a suborbital launch by 2029, indicating that the technology is still several years away from operational use.Russia’s Roscosmos is also developing reusable launch technology through its methane-fuelled Amur-SPG rocket, which is designed to recover its first stage. However, the programme has faced repeated delays, with the latest official plans pointing to flight tests around 2030/31, suggesting the technology still remains some years away from operational deployment.The Indian government in 2024 approved the development of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). This is being designed as a reusable launch vehicle with an aim to provide low-cost access to space. The NGLV is intended to strengthen India’s space transportation capabilities beyond the existing PSLV, GSLV, LVM3 and SSLV fleet. The project will involve significant participation from Indian industry, with three development flights planned over an eight-year period. The government has approved a budget of Rs 8,240 crore for this project.Also, companies from the private sector like Agnikul Cosmos are building and testing patented technologies for reusable small satellite launch vehicles. However, the technology is still in the development phase and will require some more years before it becomes fully operational.Against this backdrop, China is currently the only country that appears capable of emerging as a credible alternative to SpaceX in reusable launch system capabilities.Developing reusable rocket technology is a complex engineering challenge, and China has spent nearly a decade pursuing it. As recently as 2025, booster recovery tests by private launch company LandSpace and the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation ended unsuccessfully, underscoring the difficulty of mastering the technology. It appears that an earlier attempt in February, involving the LM-10A recovery technology demonstration, did not achieve a successful booster recovery.China’s recent successful booster recovery marks a significant breakthrough and could accelerate its entry into the commercial launch market. Its recovery technique could prove more cost-effective by reducing vehicle mass, lowering recovery costs and enabling greater payload capacity. If the system demonstrates reliability through repeated operations, it could enhance China’s competitiveness against SpaceX by reducing launch costs, increasing launch frequency and improving the economics of satellite deployment in the global commercial launch market, where SpaceX currently holds a dominant position.This test has already boosted investor confidence in China and the shares of Chinese space companies, including China Spacesat and China Satellite Communications, have shown a rise of about 10%.From a national security perspective, this development aligns with China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, which integrates civilian technological advances with military objectives. Cost-effective, rapidly reusable launch systems would enable quicker deployment and replacement of military satellites for weather, communications, navigation and intelligence gathering.The same industrial base, manufacturing capabilities and propulsion technologies developed for commercial reusable launch vehicles can also support military space programmes.Beyond commercial applications, this test could also enhance China’s strategic flexibility in space operations.Ajey Lele is a researcher and is the author of the book Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click.