Milestone note Reached Jul 10, 2026
China recovers an orbital booster for the first time
CASC — The Long March 10B first stage was recovered at sea ~6 minutes after stage separation — four hooks caught a tensioned cable net on the recovery vessel, a legless design CASC says saves mass and widens the capture window. China's first controlled recovery of an orbital launch vehicle, the first net-based one anywhere, and the first orbital-class booster recovery by anyone other than SpaceX and Blue Origin. Reflight is still to come.
Auto-drafted from a verified measurement, then human-checked.
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