Long March 10B Maiden Flight
Will China Finally Recovery An Orbital Booster?
China's Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is set to maiden their Long March 10B orbital rocket and will be launching from Wenchang Spaceport located on the Hainan Island in South China.
This isn't just a new Long March rocket variant; this launch vehicle will attempt to recover its first stage for reuse, similar to how SpaceX recovers the 1st stage Falcon-9 booster. However, this booster won't be landing back on land or on a barge like Falcon-9 does. The Long March 10B booster will fly downrange where it will be caught by a recovery vessel with a complex structure and cables that will capture the booster via booster-mounted catch arms.
If all goes to plan, CASC Long March 10B will be the first recovered orbital-class booster for China following the failed recovery attempts of the ZhuQue-3 and Long March 12A rocket a few months prior.
As the primary objective, the upper-stage 'CZ-10B' will ascend to orbit, delivering a customer payload(s) to Low-Earth Orbit.
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