Chang Shiyi was successfully recovered, marking the "DeepSeek moment" for Chinese commercial spaceflight!
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At 12:15 on July 10, 2026, a rocket soared from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. Eight minutes later, its first stage controllably landed on a sea platform and was steadily captured by a "well"-shaped net system—this was China's first controllable recovery of a launch vehicle, as well as the world's first net-based recovery of a launch vehicle.
Huatai Securities has characterized this event as the "DeepSeek moment" for domestic commercial space.
The latest report from the institution notes that just as DeepSeek’s emergence reshaped market perceptions of AI industry valuations, the successful recovery of the Long March 10B (Chang 10B) marks the investment logic for the commercial space sector shifting from "technical validation expectation" to "reusability economics verification"—the bottleneck of constellation deployment capacity cost is starting to see substantial breakthroughs.
As launch costs decrease, the pace of networking low-orbit constellations, frequency of commercial rocket launches, satellite payload and terminal orders, as well as spatial data and computing applications, are likely to accelerate.
Historic Moment: Chang 10B Sets Two "World Firsts"
The technical content of this mission far exceeded market expectations. Chang 10B is a two-stage, tandem-configured rocket with a 5-meter diameter, developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The first core stage uses the same setup as Chang 10A's first stage with liquid oxygen/kerosene propellant, while the second core stage adopts a newly developed high-thrust liquid oxygen/methane engine for the first time. The launch thrust is about 890 tons, the launch weight about 760 tons, and it can deliver up to 16 tons to low-Earth orbit in reusable mode.
This mission set two historic records: first, it was China's first successful controllable recovery of a launch vehicle, making Chang 10B the country's first reusable launch vehicle to achieve recovery, and the 657th launch of the Long March series; second, the "well"-shaped high-strength buffered net system recovery is a world-first technological route, belonging to China's autonomous innovation, with no precedent globally.
In terms of technical validation, this maiden flight completed comprehensive closed-loop verifications of key technologies, including overall design optimization, high-thrust load transmission from box bottom, propellant management for partitioned tanks, methane self-pressurization, multiple engine starts and high-altitude ignition, high-precision navigation control, and others. According to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s official website, the recovered first stage is expected to undertake a reuse flight before the end of the year.
Net-Based Recovery: A Disruptive Engineering Logic
Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vertical landing leg solution, Chang 10B chose an entirely different technological path, underpinned by profound engineering logic.
According to Xinhua News Agency on July 10, the return segment consists of glide orientation, powered deceleration, aerodynamic deceleration, and landing—four phases. The critical landing phase innovatively employs the world’s first "well"-shaped high-strength buffered net system, paired with onboard cable mechanisms for rocket capture. Chen Muyie from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the advantage of net-based recovery is eliminating landing legs: this simplifies rocket structure, reduces weight, increases payload capacity, adapts well to landing point errors, and can "expand" the capture window in collaboration with the net system.
The recovery platform "Navigator" was delivered by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in November 2025. It measures 144 meters long, 50 meters wide, and has a full load displacement of 25,000 tons.
Chang 10B also has innovations in separation technology.
Research by Guotai Haitong notes that traditional disposable rockets use pyrotechnics for stage separation, which can damage the structure through impact loads. Chang 10B adopts a "gas-driven push separation scheme," using high-pressure gas to push rods that gently separate the second stage from the first. After the action, the rods retract, leaving the first stage "practically undamaged" to enable ideal conditions for reuse. Additionally, Chang 10B uses a "three-horizontal" test and launch mode (horizontal assembly, horizontal testing, horizontal transportation), reducing launch preparation time to under 14 days and substantially increasing launch frequency and mission response speed.
Next Catalyst: Zhuque-3 Yao-2
The success of Chang 10B is not the end, but the start of a series of successive catalysts.
In the private rocket sector, Zhuque-3 Yao-2 completed its static ignition test at the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area on June 29. All key pre-launch ground validations are complete, and it is now in standby, set to attempt a vertical first-stage landing recovery. Zhuque-3’s chief designer Zhang Xiaodong said at the 2026 Space Computing Industry Conference that if recovery succeeds, they hope to attempt their first reuse flight in the fourth quarter.
Orient Securities points out that the main concern about commercial space previously was its long industry cycle, but this breakthrough in rocket recovery technology, combined with the reuse test flight scheduled for later this year, may lead to an earlier arrival of large-scale reuse launches. Once reusable, rocket launch frequency will increase significantly, accelerating constellation networking.
Satellite-side catalysts are proceeding in parallel: StarNet experimental satellites continue validation; new technologies such as high-speed laser communication terminals and 5G NTN are being demonstrated rapidly; Qianfan constellation networking and R&D are accelerating, with frequent launches likely to become routine.
Space Arms Race: The Countdown for Frequency-Orbit Resource Competition
The successful recovery of Chang 10B comes as the global satellite internet battle enters a fever pitch, with the strategic value of frequency-orbit resources increasingly prominent.
This week, SpaceX formally applied to deploy the third-generation Starlink (Gen3) constellation, with a scale of 100,000 satellites, intended as the main backbone for global AI communications; in January 2026, SpaceX submitted the even larger "Starmind" space-based AI computing constellation plan to the FCC, planning up to 1 million satellites, with the main AI1 model averaging 120kW computing power per satellite.
Facing SpaceX’s million-satellite plan, in December 2025, China applied to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for over 200,000 satellites, across about 14 constellations, breaking the domestic application record. The ITU follows a "first come, first serve" principle for frequency-orbit resources: after application, the first satellite must be launched and operate normally for 90 days within 7 years, and 100% deployment of the constellation must be completed within 14 years.
This means China must build its constellations at an even faster pace. The successful recovery of Chang 10B has just opened the cost bottleneck for capacity at the most critical time window.
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