China’s Long March-10B rocket feat lights up social media: is SpaceX set to lose crown?

China’s landmark recovery of a reusable rocket has ignited heated debate on social media, with reactions ranging from awe at the rapid pace of Chinese space development to speculation over a more intense space race with the United States. This comes at a time of renewed optimism around the satellite sector, as commercial demand for internet constellations skyrockets. China made history on Friday by becoming only the second nation to achieve the controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster, after successfully retrieving part of its Long March-10B reusable rocket during its debut flight. Instead of adopting methods pioneered by Elon Musk’s US-based SpaceX, the Chinese mission used a first-of-its-kind, sea-based net-and-cable system to allow for a more adaptable recovery. Reusing rocket boosters can significantly lower the cost of space missions, making massive satellite constellation deployments, deep-space exploration and crewed moon landings financially viable. The news quickly gained traction online, after state news agency Xinhua released footage showing the falling booster being snatched mid-air by a moving net at sea. Beijing’s rocket recovery showed the US monopoly on economical reuse was “over”, Argentine-Spanish entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky posted on social media. “This development will pressure launch costs lower and speed up both commercial satellite deployments and crewed lunar plans,” he added. “The space race just became a real race again.” SpaceX achieved the first successful landing of an orbital-class Falcon 9 booster in December 2015. A decade later, the aerospace venture of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – Blue Origin – matched that feat with its New Glenn rocket. SpaceX has pushed past 100 launches annually in recent years, sustained by a fleet of reusable boosters engineered to launch dozens of times. Javed Hassan, a Pakistani commentator, noted online that while SpaceX held a considerable lead, China had the capacity to “make reusable launch systems reliable and economical at scale”. “China has a history of absorbing, adapting and industrialising complex technologies at remarkable speed … The global launch market is likely to become a genuine two-horse race rather than one dominated by a single player,” Hassan posted. Independent technology and geopolitics analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera highlighted Beijing’s ultimate goal of a crewed lunar landing, noting how it “refused to copy” the SpaceX method and appeared to be closing the gap with the US. “One flight does not dethrone SpaceX … What ended today is not SpaceX’s lead. It is Uncle Sam’s belief that it owns the only road to the moon. “The piece works out which way of coming home actually wins.” China’s net-and-cable recovery system is fuelling much of the online debate, with users fiercely arguing whether the technology was invented by the United States or China. Nury Vittachi, a Sri Lankan author based in Hong Kong, said the global fascination with Beijing’s achievement was not about the technological novelty, but about its geopolitical and socioeconomic implications. “The world took such an interest in China’s achievement not because they claimed to be first – they did not – but because a nation from a poor part of the world successfully did what the world’s wealthiest country had done,” Vittachi said on social media. “It’s not specific achievements, but the speed and velocity of China’s rise that is terrifying the US political-media establishment.” The successful recovery of the Long March-10B – designed to deploy commercial satellite constellations – coincides with renewed optimism from Wall Street regarding the satellite sector. In a report released on Wednesday, Goldman Sachs significantly raised its baseline forecast for low-Earth-orbit satellite deployments by 2031, boosting the estimate from 42,000 to 305,000 units, a more than seven-fold increase. The upgrade is primarily driven by the inclusion of space-based data centres in their industry modelling. This market is expected to overtake satellite internet as the main catalyst for global low-Earth-orbit deployment, according to the report. The report framed rocket technology advancement as the defining variable for its forecast, noting that for China, breakthroughs in home-grown reusable rockets were a vital milestone in accelerating low-Earth-orbit satellite deployment. Other reusable models awaiting launch and testing this year include Hyperbola-3 from iSpace, a private Chinese aerospace company. According to threads on Chinese social media, a second Zhuque-3 rocket could attempt another SpaceX-style vertical landing in the coming weeks following a recent failure, while a full Long March-10A flight is expected later this year.

China’s Long March-10B rocket feat lights up social media: is SpaceX set to lose crown?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The space race just became a real race again, says one online commentator, after net-and-cable recovery of rocket booster sparks awe

The space race just became a real race again, says one online commentator, after net-and-cable recovery of rocket booster sparks awe