China Pulls Off Historic Orbital Rocket Sea Net Landing To Challenge SpaceX
China has successfully recovered an orbital rocket booster via controlled descent for the first time, breaking what some see as the long-standing monopoly held by American commercial aerospace. During the maiden flight of the Long March 10B earlier today, the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) achieved a flawless vertical return onto a sea-borne net platform.
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.
Compared to SpaceX’s Falcon 9that relies on deployable landing legs touching down on ground pads or drone ships, the Long March 10B utilized a net-capture system. As the...
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