China is catching up to Elon Musk’s reusable rockets
China's state-owned space company, CASC, has successfully landed a rocket booster on a recovery ship, marking a significant step toward reusable launch technology. This development aims to reduce launch costs and potentially challenge SpaceX's dominance in the global satellite communications market.
Why it matters
The emergence of a Chinese reusable rocket program threatens to erode the U.S. military's space advantage and creates direct competition for SpaceX's Starlink network in global markets.
China’s state-owned space company successfully launched a Long March orbital rocket and landed the booster on a seagoing recovery vessel, making it the second country to achieve the feat.
The demonstration on Friday shows that China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is poised to match the advance that catapulted SpaceX to the top of the heap: reusing the same booster again and again to drive down the cost of launching spacecraft. CASC said it would attempt to reuse the booster, which can carry about as much payload as SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, by the end of the year.
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