Long March 10B (Chinese: 长征十号乙) is a two-stage, medium-lift partially reusable launch vehicle developed by the China Rocket, a commercial launch provider and a subsidiary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The rocket features a first-stage powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen and a second-stage powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen. It is the third in the Long March 10 series of rockets and is derived using technologies developed for the Long March 10A.
The first launch of the rocket occurred at 4:15 (UTC) on 10 July 2026 from launch complex 2 of the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site. The launch and booster recovery were both successful. The Long March 10B debut launch became China's first successful orbital booster recovery, and made China the second country to achieve rocket recovery after the United States. The Long March 10B was also the first successful net-based rocket recovery in history.
Overview
The Long March 10B is closely related to the Long March 10 family (from which the Long March 10B is derived), which is designed to fly the Mengzhou spacecraft to the moon.
In December 2025, a representative from China Rocket, the commercial arm of CALT, presented plans for a commercial variant of the Long March 10A during the Wenchang International Aviation and Aerospace Forum 2025. This new variant, the Long March 10B, will have a payload capacity of at least 16 tonnes, likely in a reusable mode, to a 200 km low Earth orbit, and at least 11 tonnes to a 900 km orbit at 50 degrees orbital inclination.
In a July 2026 interview, Qian Hang, from the First Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), referred to the Long March 10b as the "younger sibling' of the Long March 10A. Long March 10A is designed to carry crewed spacecraft to low Earth orbit (LEO) and is a comprehensively upgraded evolution of the older Long March 2F and Long March 7 launchers. Thus, the Long March 10B is configured to gather flight data for the Long March 10A, thereby reducing development risks and enhancing the reliability of future crewed missions. In addition, the 10B variant will verify new technologies for the recovery. The Long March 10B will also reuse recovered first-stage boosters from Long March 10A missions and, by using a more powerful liquid methane-based second stage, generate greater lifting capacity than the latter. Unlike the Long March 10A, the 10B variant will be aimed at providing launch services for China's commercial space sector.
Design
The Long March 10B is a medium-lift launch vehicle at 10 m (33 ft) tall and 5 m (16 ft) in diameter. It features two stages, with the first stage powered by seven YF-100K engines. The booster can deliver up to 16 t (35,000 lb) in recoverable configuration to low Earth orbit. It's primarily designed for cargo missions.
The new Long March 10B inherits the first stage of the Long March 10A but reportedly will use a more powerful second stage that employs methane and liquid oxygen as fuel and oxidizer, respectively. There may also be an additional commercial variant tentatively named the Long March 10C. The first stage of the Long March 10B, just as the Long March-10A variant, will be recoverable via a "wire recovery apparatus" located on a recovery vessel after launch from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island. The first stage of the rocket is equipped with hooks that will catch the wire network on the recovery ship; the tensioned wires are carried by rail-mounted dollies, which automatically position themselves to optimize the likelihood that the rocket will successfully "catch" the wires.
Net-based booster recovery differs from landing-leg systems primarily in the location of the recovery hardware. Reusable rockets like Falcon 9 carry the landing legs and reinforced support structures throughout the flight, whereas the Long March 10B places the recovery system and shock-absorbing equipment on the landing barge, leaving the booster with only lightweight hooks. This reduces booster mass, simplifies its structure, and increases payload capacity, while the larger capture area of a net could tolerate greater landing error in difficult maritime conditions.
Launches
Debut launch
The first launch of the Long March 10B took place at 4:15 (UTC) on 10 July 2026. The upper stage successfully placed a satellite into its designated orbit. The first-stage booster was successfully recovered using the wire-based recovery system fitted on the Linghangzhe (Navigator) recovery ship. Long March 10B is the first system in China and the first outside of the United States to accomplish first-stage recovery, meaning the launcher provider China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) joins an exclusive club of reusable rocket manufacturers including SpaceX and Blue Origin. It is the first system to successfully recover a booster using a net-based system. This was China's third attempt at rocket booster recovery, following LandSpace's Zhuque-3 and CALT's previous recovery test.
